Insider Media Limited

Fashion guru Jeff Banks has told Insider he stepped down from the bidding to design the 2012 Olympics Team GB athletes' outfits because the price was too high. Banks, who co-founded Coleshill-based retailer Incorporatewear, said the winning bidder paid about £12m for the design work. The retailer also told Insider about Incorporatewear’s plans to launch a new division of corporate clothing aimed at small businesses.

Banks, who co-founded high street store Warehouse, designed 130 outfits for the 2012 Olympics delegates but said he could not afford to continue the bidding war to create outfits for the competing athletes in the tournament.

He said: “When it came down to who got the design work, it was always about money. It’s unfortunate, because I know that myself and designers such as Paul Smith would have done a great job – but I just couldn’t afford the price tag.”

Banks said he believed the winning bidder was a well know high-street chain.

He co-founded Incorporatewear 15 years ago from what he calls “the jaws of disaster”.

“I was working for another firm who was bidding for the corporate clothing design of the British Airways uniform. They lost, didn’t deliver, and I thought, ‘I could do that better’,” he said.

Incorporatewear has designed uniforms for brands including Virgin Atlantic, Premier Inn and Barclays Bank.

Banks said the company’s next project would expand its reach towards smaller businesses.

“We’re looking to do a catalogue and online venture which caters for smaller companies which employ ten or more people – perhaps hotels, restaurants, retailers. We’ve been working on it for about a year now, and are meeting soon to decide whether we have the design and value content right. If so, I imagine we’ll launch the new division in February next year,” he said.

Banks said he felt Incorporatewear would grow organically in the long term, and did not feel there were any businesses on the market he wished to acquire.

He said: “We have looked around – but then said, ‘what’s the point?’ We couldn’t see the benefit of buying another company, and wouldn’t just acquire to grow for the sake of it.

“We’re a cash-positive company which hasn’t borrowed any money – it’s put us in a great position to offer a unique, high quality and superior line of products.”