“The essence of Zen is: be here now,” says José Neves. “In a crisis, that’s really useful because you train your mind to be aware that external situations around you [are] going to pass.” He’s had his share of hairy moments. But for the moment “now” must be a sweet place for the Portuguese entrepreneur who, fittingly for someone who got his start in shoes, seems to have the luxury fashion industry at his feet. Neves, 47, runs Farfetch, a digital platform hosting a collection of independent boutiques and designer labels that has thrived in the pandemic. He’s credited with keeping many independents afloat when shops closed. That was just the start, says Forbes. Having cornered the market in building bespoke websites and apps in the sector, the London-based, New York-listed outfit has placed itself “at the centre of the online luxury digital revolution”.
Reimagining the shopping trip
Admirers credit the “visionary” Neves’s unique pedigree of fashion smarts and tech expertise, and a knack for bridge-building that a politician might envy. An unlikely alliance, sewn together last November with the aim of cracking the Chinese market, succeeded in uniting Alibaba, Richemont and Artemis. All are rivals in the ecommerce wars (Richemont, for instance, owns Farfetch’s biggest e-tail competitor Yoox Net-a-Porter), “yet all three are placing their bets on Neves’s ability to reimagine how we shop”. Forbes makes comparisons with Jeff Bezos, but Neves – a self-styled Buddhist “by philosophy, not by religion” – dislikes the comparison, noting that Amazon set out to trash the competition; Farfetch’s raison d’être is to nurture the entire eco-system. Given that lofty goal, it’s perhaps not surprising that the outfit has yet to make a profit.
Growing up in Porto in Portugal, where his grandfather ran a shoe factory, he hated fashion, preferring to spend his time with his ZX Spectrum computer, “coding, coding and more coding”. Still, he could never quite shake off his heritage. While studying economics at the University of Porto he teamed up with Cipriano Sousa (now Farfetch’s chief technology officer) to start a software house catering to the many shoe factories in the region. “Neves came to see fashion as a passport to the wider world,” says The Robb Report. He took up shoemaking himself and, in 1996, launched a trainer brand, Swear, from “a shoebox of a store” in London’s Covent Garden. Building the website a year later, he had a light-bulb moment. “I knew that fashion was going to be transformed by the internet.”
Subscribe to MoneyWeek
Subscribe to MoneyWeek today and get your first six magazine issues absolutely FREE
Sign up to Money Morning
Don't miss the latest investment and personal finances news, market analysis, plus money-saving tips with our free twice-daily newsletter
Don't miss the latest investment and personal finances news, market analysis, plus money-saving tips with our free twice-daily newsletter
Playing the long game
It took Neves 11 years to translate that instinct into Farfetch, via a series of other ventures. In 2007 he arranged a showroom during Paris Fashion Week for an assortment of small British shops and labels. It was a short step to offering them an online marketplace. “José played a long game,” an early backer told the Financial Times. “He thought the big brands would never talk to us until the boutiques talked us up to them. And he was right.” A key moment came in 2017 when Kering-owned Gucci signed up. The following year, Farfetch staged a flashy Wall Street initial public offering valued at $6bn.
Investors have had quite a ride, says the FT. In 2019 the “shares hit rock-bottom” due to fears that Farfetch was “little more than an overhyped ecommerce player”. But the pandemic “brought a reckoning”. Sales have jumped (it is even whispered that profitability may be in sight), but nothing like the share price, which surged by 475% in 2020, says The Robb Report. Investors, it seems, are still sold on the notion that Neves has emerged as “luxury’s lodestar” for navigating a “new world order”.
-
8 of the best houses for sale with outdoor swimming poolsThe best houses for sale with outdoor swimming pools – from a family house in Wimbledon Village, London, to a 1640s mansion in Derbyshire with a heated swimming pool in the grounds
-
Trouble brews in B&M as bargain shops take a hitOpinion Once a stock market darling, B&M's share price has slumped. What has gone wrong for bargain shops?
-
Mohammed bin Salman: The new face of Saudi ArabiaUnder the crown prince Mohammed bin Salman, Saudi Arabia's de facto ruler, the kingdom has pursued ambitious reforms to transform itself into a thriving 21st-century economy
-
Can Pope Leo plug a worrying black hole in the Vatican’s finances?Pope Leo, the new head of the Catholic Church, takes responsibility not just for 1.4 billion souls, but also for a complex multinational business in deep financial trouble.
-
Doug and Mary Perkins: Specsavers’ clear-sighted foundersHelped by the deregulation of the sector in the 1980s and brilliant advertising, Mary Perkins and her husband Doug have taken Specsavers to the top of the optometry market
-
Greg Abel: Warren Buffett’s heir takes the throneGreg Abel is considered a safe pair of hands as he takes centre stage at Berkshire Hathaway. But he arrives after one of the hardest acts to follow in investment history, Warren Buffett. Can he thrive?
-
Who will be the next Warren Buffett?Opinion There won’t be another Warren Buffett. Times have changed, and the opportunities are no longer there, says Matthew Lynn.
-
Lorne Michaels: the ringmaster at Saturday Night LiveLorne Michaels created Saturday Night Live, a cultural phenomenon that launched the careers of countless stars in America.
-
'Rachel Reeves' plan to force pension funds into UK assets won't work'Opinion Hustling pension fund cash into British assets sounds like a good idea. It would be better to make Britain an attractive place to invest, says Matthew Lynn
-
Elliot Grainge: the music mogul of the TikTok age who will now helm Atlantic RecordsElliot Grainge, the entrepreneur behind the upstart music producer 10K Projects, has taken over the top job at Atlantic Records, the label synonymous with musical greats. Can he transform its prospects?
