key people stuart rose chairman anthony thompson chief executive products clothing footwear accessories revenue 200 million gbp 2013 1 owner bridgepoint capital 55 % tim slade 6 % jules leaver 6 % fat face employees 13 % other 20 % website www.fatface.com fat face putney exchange london now closed fat face is a lifestyle clothing and accessories retailer based in the uk . it was founded in 1988 by tim slade and jules leaver as a business selling t shirts at ski resorts . 2 3 the company opened its first retail shop in 1993 ; as of 2014 update there were 209 fat face stores in the uk and ireland . 4 1 history edit the business was founded in 1988 in french ski resort m ribel by tim slade a former policeman and business graduate jules leaver . the pair bought t shirts wholesale had them printed with designs specific to the resort and sold them to other skiers on the slopes at first using the proceeds only to fund their own skiing . 3 they spent the following years travelling to different ski resorts where they continued to produce and sell ski and outdoor related clothing . 3 in 1993 they opened their first shop on london s fulham road ; they named it fat face after the face de bellevarde slope in val d is re . 3 4 in 2000 they sold 40 % of the company to edinburgh investment firm isis equity partners for 5 million . 5 in 2005 another private equity company advent international bought isis s interest in the company . 6 in 2007 fat face was acquired for 360 million by private equity group bridgepoint capital ; 7 the sale netted slade and leaver 90 million . 8 2 the company s sales were badly hit by the great recession forcing bridgepoint to write down half the company s value 8 but improved in 2010 and again in 2011 9 and fat face returned to a small profit in 2012 . 10 bridgepoint planned to float a quarter of the company on the london stock exchange in 2014 hoping to raise 110 million but later cancelled the flotation due to lack of confidence by prospective institutional stockholders . 1 7 the chief executive is anthony thompson who joined in 2010 replacing louise barnes . thompson had previously run asda s george clothing brand and worked for marks and spencer in its clothing division . 2 in 2013 bridgepoint hired former marks and spencer chief executive stuart rose to be fat face s chairman ; rose was formerly thompson s boss at m & s. 10 rose replaced alan giles as chairman . 10 references edit a b c gareth mackie 10 july 2014 . fat face profits rise despite flotation u turn . the scotsman . retrieved 14 july 2014 . a b c james hall 22 january 2010 . asda clothing boss anthony thompson defects to fat face . the daily telegraph . retrieved 14 july 2014 . a b c d lina saigol andrea felsted 20 january 2014 . the ski bums who understood the bottom line . financial times . retrieved 14 july 2014 . cs1 maint uses authors parameter link a b jonathan prynn 2 september 2004 . fat face pair could scoop 35m . london evening standard . retrieved 14 july 2014 . isis set to land 20m in fat face market listing . the scotsman . 7 february 2004 . retrieved 14 july 2014 . fat face bought . retail week . 9 may 2005 . retrieved 14 july 2014 . a b scott campbell 9 jul 2014 . fat face reports sales rise after abandoned ipo plans . the daily telegraph . retrieved 14 july 2014 . a b richard fletcher 15 march 2010 . fat face loses 225m on write offs . the daily telegraph . retrieved 14 july 2014 . fat face company profile . retail week . retrieved 14 july 2014 . a b c former marks & spencer boss sir stuart rose to be named new chairman of fashion chain fat face . this is money . 3 february 2013 . retrieved 14 july 2014 . external links edit official website us website retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title fat face & oldid 744149727 categories clothing retailers of the united kingdombritish brandshidden categories cs1 maint uses authors parameteruse dmy dates from october 2014use british english from october 2014articles containing potentially dated statements from 2014all articles containing potentially dated statements navigation menu personal tools not logged intalkcontributionscreate accountlog in namespaces article talk variants views read edit view history more search navigation main pagecontentsfeatured contentcurrent eventsrandom articledonate to wikipediawikipedia store interaction helpabout wikipediacommunity portalrecent changescontact page tools what links hererelated changesupload filespecial pagespermanent linkpage informationwikidata itemcite this page print export create a bookdownload as pdfprintable version languages fran ais edit links this page was last modified on 13 october 2016 at 12 09 . text is available under the creative commons attribution sharealike license ; 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