Sosandar strikes deal to sell through Sainsbury's, enter its physical stores

By

Sandra Halliday

Published
Jan 23, 2023

Womenswear brand Sosandar has announced its latest retailer link-up and its first move into physical stores, and it may come as a surprise that the new deal is with supermarket giant Sainsbury’s.

The company, which originally sold on its own webstore, but has also added link-ups with John Lewis, M&S, Next, JD Williams and Very online, said it has entered into an agreement to sell a curated collection of his products through the supermarkets business.

Via the new wholesale agreement, a selected range will begin to be sold through Sainsbury's during 2023, initially online only, but with selected stores planned later this year.

That's a hugely important move for the Sosandar brand, given the massive size of Sainsbury's in the UK and the strong presence of fashion product in its superstores that are visited weekly by many consumers.

But it's also very important for Sainsbury's itself as that company deepens its fashion offer. The supermarket is already a major seller of fashion in Britain due to its Tu Clothing brand.

The addition of a growing mid-market label at prices that are affordable but well above the supermarket norm is an important addition to that offer — as well as being something we wouldn’t have expected from a supermarket operation not so many years ago.

Sosandar said the move comes “as Sainsbury's increases its collaborations with fashion brands in order to provide new and existing customers with a broader selection of products”.  

The initial product range will include “best-selling styles from Sosandar's high-performing collection and accessories”.

Importantly too, the partnership includes Sosandar’s first in-store presence, and allows it to become a truly omnichannel retailer, “further diversifying its route to market and increasing brand awareness across its target demographic, whilst driving growth sales and [profit before tax]”.

The company said its other partnerships have been “extremely strong” in the year to date and its third-party deals saw a record quarter in Q3.

In a prepared statement, co-CEOs Ali Hall and Julie Lavington said: “In line with our objective to provide our large but underserved demographic with more opportunities to purchase our unique and diverse products, this elevates our strategy from pureplay to an omnichannel brand. We believe that being an omnichannel business enhances our brand equity, will accelerate growth in our market share and brand awareness, whilst also providing us with a wider breadth of quality potential partners internationally.”