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Manchester design company snaps up London’s Alice Hannah

Boardmans Design, the Manchester-based fashion accessory supplier, has announced it has acquired fashion design company Alice Hannah for an undisclosed sum.

The acquisition will mean the near-century old fashion designer, which has offices in Manchester and China, has a customer-facing brand for the first time in its history after mainly focusing its business on retailers and wholesalers in the past.

London-based Alice Hannah’s range of specially designed fashion accessories are currently stocked by big-name retailers such as Etsy and Asos, and complements Boardmans client list which includes Topshop and Accesorize.

Claire Pitcher, who founded Alice Hannah with business partner Steve Blackburn in 2007, said that she had always had aspirations that her business would be part of a larger fashion organisation and that they were joining Boardmans at an ‘exciting time’ for the supplier.

She said: “Boardmans Design has an excellent reputation in the industry and we were really impressed with the team’s product strategy and design influence and the impact this will have on growing the Alice Hannah brand.”

Philip Wright, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Boardmans Design added: “The acquisition of the Alice Hannah brand has been the next step in our business growth strategy whilst also enabling us to have a consumer facing brand for the first time.

“We have always admired the Alice Hannah brand coupled with Claire’s passion and talent for design and recognised an opportunity for both businesses to work together.

“We’re delighted to have the Alice Hannah team on board and we are already focusing our efforts on gaining further listings with major retailers and independents, enabling Claire and her team to focus on the inspiration and design for the exciting new collections.”