ASOS.com
Public | |
Traded as | LSE: ASC |
Industry | Clothing retail |
Founded | 3 June 2000 |
Headquarters | London, England |
Key people |
|
Products | Clothes, shoes, accessories, beauty |
Revenue | £1.158 billion (2015) |
Number of employees | 4000+ |
Website |
www |
Asos.com (/ˈeɪsɒs/ EI-soss)[1] is a British online fashion and beauty store. Primarily aimed at young adults,[2] Asos sells over 850 brands as well as its own range of clothing and accessories. Revenue for the financial year ending 31 August 2015 was £1,119.9 million.[3] As of August 2015, ASOS PLC has net assets of £237.3 million.[3]
Asos.com is a global online fashion and beauty retailer, offering womenswear, menswear, footwear, accessories, jewellery and beauty products. It sells over 80,000 branded and own-brand products online and through mobile experiences. Asos has websites targeting the UK, Australia, USA, France, Germany, Spain, Russia, Italy and China. It also ships to over 140 countries from fulfilment centres in the UK, US, Europe and China.[2]
Asos' headquarters are in Camden Town, at Greater London House. As of 2013, their main fulfilment centre is in Barnsley, South Yorkshire, where they employ 3,000 workers.[4][5] The Customer Care department is based in Hertfordshire, United Kingdom.[6]
In 2016 the company launched its first drama-game show series called #DIGIDATING, starring AJ Odudu. It was billed as an Internet dating show with backstage drama.[7] In September, 2016 an investigative report from Buzzfeed News alleged poor working conditions at Asos’s warehouse. However, company spokespersons contended that the isolated complaints reported in the Buzzfeed article were not reflective of the general working conditions there. [8]
History
Asos was established on 3 June 2000 by Nick Robertson[4] and Quentin Griffiths. Despite deprecating its original meaning (AsSeenOnScreen[9]), Asos is still written as an uppercase acronym; the exception to the rule being the new logo designed by Ben Lewin in 2008, where it is stylistically shown all in lower case.
In 2001, Asos was admitted to the Alternative Investment Market (AIM) on the London Stock Exchange.[10]
In 2003, Asos shareholders agreed to change the names of AsSeenOnScreen Holdings PLC and AsSeenOnScreen Limited to Asos PLC and Asos.com Limited.
In 2005, the Buncefield Fuel Depot explosion closed the business for six weeks and £5m of stock was lost.[11]
In 2008, Asos debuted kidswear on its site but the branded market suffered declines at the expense of fast-growing own-label kidswear offers. In 2010 the Multi-brand retailer announced it is axing its kidswear offer to concentrate on its core young fashion market.[12]
In 2013, Asos opened its first office outside the South West, in Birmingham [13] In 2013, Asos recalled belts contaminated with radioactive cobalt-60.[14] In 2013, Asos Russia and China were launched.[4] In 2014, a fire in their Barnsley warehouse caused them to stop taking orders for almost three days.[15][16]
Asos has over 4,000 employees and is the UK's largest independent online and fashion beauty retailer.[17]
In 2015, Asos teamed up with breast cancer awareness charity CoppaFeel in order to raise awareness of the disease. Asos rolled out the charity's #BraHijack campaign labels on its own-brand lingerie.[18]
Asos International
In the final quarter of 2010, Asos launched three international stores in France, Germany and the US. In September 2011 they launched three more sites in Australia, Italy and Spain.[19] Asos opened its first international office in Sydney, Australia, in 2012. Asos extended to the US in September 2013 in Rochester, NY.
Sponsorship
During the 2014 Formula One season, Asos.com was a sponsor of the McLaren Formula One team. It was originally assumed that the sponsorship would be a one-off deal lasting only the duration of the 2014 Australian Grand Prix, the inaugural race of the season.[20] However, this has been proven false, as the Asos.com logo was seen on the back of the rear wing of the 2014 McLaren Formula One car, the McLaren MP4-29, throughout the 2014 season.
References
- ↑ Wang, Connie; Marinelli, Gina (19 March 2012). "29 Of Fashion's Biggest Mysteries, Solved!". Refinery29. Archived from the original on 7 April 2012. Retrieved 7 April 2012.
- 1 2 "About ASOS". ASOS.com. Retrieved 1 November 2015.
- 1 2 "ASOS PLC ANNUAL REPORT AND ACCOUNTS 2015" (PDF). Retrieved 1 November 2015.
- 1 2 3 Young, Vicki M. (30 October 2013). "WWD CEO Summit: Asos.com's Nick Robertson Looks to the Future". WWD. Retrieved 1 November 2013.
- ↑ ASOS sees significant growth OneHydra
- ↑ "Jobs at ASOS – FAQs". ASOS. Retrieved 2014-02-23.
- ↑
- ↑ Spary, Sara; Silver, Laura (2016-09-16). "The Real Cost of Asos's Fast Fashion". buzzfeed.com. Retrieved 2016-09-30.
- ↑ "From AsSeenOnScreen to the world's number one fashion destination for 20-somethings". ASOS.com. Retrieved 29 May 2015.
- ↑ Richard Fletcher (2014-06-06). "Darling of the dotcoms was a born survivor". thetimes.co.uk/. Retrieved 2014-07-01.
- ↑ Card, Jon. "Growing Business Success Stories – ASOS". Growingbusiness.co.uk. Retrieved 2014-02-23.
- ↑ https://lilyheritage.co.uk/blog/What_happened_to_ASOS_kids/
- ↑ Enda Mullen (2013-04-01). "Fashion chain ASOS opens up in Birmingham". Birminghampost.co.uk. Retrieved 2014-02-23.
- ↑ Simon Neville (2013-05-27). "Asos pulls belts in radioactive scare". The Guardian. Retrieved 2014-06-03.
- ↑ Scott Campbell (2014-06-21). "ASOS fashion warehouse "badly damaged" in fire". The Telegraph. Retrieved 2014-06-21.
- ↑ "ASOS status monitoring". Retrieved 2014-07-03.
- ↑ "ASOS". Business of Fashion. Retrieved 21 August 2015.
- ↑ "ASOS teams up with cancer prevention charity". Dial2Donate. Retrieved 21 August 2015.
- ↑ "ASOS profits jump 41pc on international expansion". The Daily Telegraph. London. 2 June 2011.
- ↑ "ASOS join McLaren sponsors for Australian GP". autoracesponser.co.uk. Retrieved 1 October 2014.