Mountain Warehouse Limited is a British outdoor retailer selling equipment for

hiking A hike is a long, vigorous walk, usually on trails or footpaths in the countryside. Walking for pleasure developed in Europe during the eighteenth century. Long hikes as part of a religious pilgrimage have existed for a much longer time. "Hi ...

camping Camping is a form of outdoor recreation or outdoor education involving overnight stays with a basic temporary shelter such as a tent. Camping can also include a recreational vehicle, sheltered cabins, a permanent tent, a shelter such as a Bivy bag ...

skiing Skiing is the use of skis to glide on snow for basic transport, a recreational activity, or a competitive winter sport. Many types of competitive skiing events are recognized by the International Olympic Committee (IOC), and the International S ...

cycling Cycling, also known as bicycling or biking, is the activity of riding a bicycle or other types of pedal-driven human-powered vehicles such as balance bikes, unicycles, tricycles, and quadricycles. Cycling is practised around the world fo ...

running Running is a method of terrestrial locomotion by which humans and other animals move quickly on foot. Running is a gait with an aerial phase in which all feet are above the ground (though there are exceptions). This is in contrast to walkin ...

and fitness. Founded in 1997 by Mark Neale, Mountain Warehouse has grown from a single outlet store to over 330 stores in the UK,

Europe Europe is a continent located entirely in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Eastern Hemisphere. It is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, the Mediterranean Sea to the south, and Asia to the east ...

New Zealand New Zealand () is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and List of islands of New Zealand, over 600 smaller islands. It is the List of isla ...

and

North America North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere, Northern and Western Hemisphere, Western hemispheres. North America is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South Ameri ...

History

In 1997, Mountain Warehouse was founded as the retail partner of Karrimor International, the UK based outdoor clothing and equipment manufacturer. Investment company 21 Invest (now Investindustrial) were Karrimor's lead investor. 21 Invest sold Karrimor's core business to

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. Its Provinces of South Africa, nine provinces are bounded to the south by of coastline that stretches along the Atlantic O ...

n leisure group Cullinan Holdings in February 1999. The stores, which were initially branded Karrimor, were subsequently re-branded to Mountain Warehouse. Under the new name, Mountain Warehouse began selling multi-branded outdoor clothing and equipment as well as its recently launched own brand of clothing. In August 2002, NBGI Private Equity acquired the business from 21 Invest and managing Director Mark Neale, buying a majority stake in the company. CEO Neale reinvested most of his proceeds into the new acquisition. In the years that NBGI worked with Mountain Warehouse, their

own brand OWN may also refer to: *Old West Norse, a North Germanic language *'' Once Was Not'' (2005), an album by Cryptopsy * One Warrior Nation, what The Ultimate Warrior calls his fans *Oprah Winfrey Network, a U.S.-based cable and satellite television c ...

product offering increased from 5% to 80%. In July 2007, Mountain Warehouse management around Neale bought out NBGI Private Equity for £15m, backed by Icelandic investment fund KCAJ. In August 2010, the private-equity arm of

Lloyds Banking Group Lloyds Banking Group plc is a British financial institution formed through the acquisition of HBOS by Lloyds TSB in 2009. It is one of the UK's largest financial services organisations, with 30 million customers and 65,000 employees. Lloyds B ...

, LDC, took a 23% minority stake in the business as part of another £47m buyout by Mountain Warehouse management. In November 2013, the management team led by founder and CEO Mark Neale bought out minority shareholder LDC to take full ownership of the retail chain. Mr Neale personally owns 85% of the business. The £85m deal was backed by the

Royal Bank of Scotland The Royal Bank of Scotland Public Limited Company () is a major retail banking, retail and commercial bank in Scotland. It is one of the retail banking subsidiaries of NatWest Group, together with NatWest and Ulster Bank. The Royal Bank of Sco ...

and asset management firm Alcentra. in 2017, Mountain Warehouse Holdings Limited, set up a new company ‘Zakti Activeware’ which was the new name for ‘Mountain Warehouse Active’ range, and transferred a lot of stock to the new stores. In 2018, Mountain Warehouse Holdings Limited, set up another new company ‘Neon Sheep’ to break into the accessories market and so far is doing much better than Zakti Activeware. On September 3, 2024, Mountain Warehouse acquired the US-based retailer

Eastern Mountain Sports Eastern Mountain Sports (or EMS) is an American outdoor clothing and equipment retailer in the Northeastern United States headquartered in Meriden, Connecticut. EMS sells outdoor equipment and clothing from both name brands and its own EMS line. ...

for $10 million.

Stores

Mountain Warehouse has over 330 stores in the UK, North America, Europe and New Zealand, including stores in

Dublin, Ireland Dublin is the capital and largest city of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. Situated on Dublin Bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster, and is bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, pa ...

Vienna, Austria Vienna ( ; ; ) is the capital city, capital, List of largest cities in Austria, most populous city, and one of Federal states of Austria, nine federal states of Austria. It is Austria's primate city, with just over two million inhabitants. ...

, and stores in

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It extends from the Baltic Sea in the north to the Sudetes and Carpathian Mountains in the south, bordered by Lithuania and Russia to the northeast, Belarus and Ukrai ...

including

Warsaw Warsaw, officially the Capital City of Warsaw, is the capital and List of cities and towns in Poland, largest city of Poland. The metropolis stands on the Vistula, River Vistula in east-central Poland. Its population is officially estimated at ...

. The first Mountain Warehouse store opened in 1997. By August 2002 Mountain Warehouse had opened a further 13 stores in factory outlet centres in the UK and one in Vienna, as well as three concession stores in UK

garden centre A garden centre (American English spelling; U.S. nursery or garden center) is a retail business that primarily sells plants and related products for Home gardening, domestic gardening. Gardening centers usually revolve around outdoor home imp ...

s. The London

Covent Garden Covent Garden is a district in London, on the eastern fringes of the West End, between St Martin's Lane and Drury Lane. It is associated with the former fruit-and-vegetable market in the central square, now a popular shopping and tourist sit ...

store was the first of Mountain Warehouse's high street stores. By 2019 Mountain Warehouse opened a further 9 stores in London, located in popular areas such as

Regent Street Regent Street is a major shopping street in the West End of London. It is named after George IV of the United Kingdom, George, the Prince Regent (later George IV) and was laid out under the direction of the architect John Nash (architect), J ...

Fulham Fulham () is an area of the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham in West London, England, southwest of Charing Cross. It lies in a loop on the north bank of the River Thames, bordering Hammersmith, Kensington and Chelsea, London, Chelsea ...

and

Wimbledon Wimbledon most often refers to: * Wimbledon, London, a district of southwest London * Wimbledon Championships, the oldest tennis tournament in the world and one of the four Grand Slam championships Wimbledon may also refer to: Places London * W ...

. Mountain Warehouse purchased six of former Woolworths sites, including

Fort William, Scotland Fort William is a town in the Lochaber region of the Scottish Highlands, located on the eastern shore of Loch Linnhe in the Highland (council area), Highland Council of Scotland. At the 2011 United Kingdom census, 2011 census, Fort William had ...

St Ives, Cornwall St Ives (, meaning "Ia of Cornwall, St Ia's cove") is a seaside town, civil parish and port in Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. The town lies north of Penzance and west of Camborne on the coast of the Celtic Sea. In former times, it was comm ...

and

Buxton, Derbyshire Buxton is a spa town in the High Peak, Derbyshire, Borough of High Peak, Derbyshire, in the East Midlands region of England. It is England's highest market town, sited at some above sea level.Alston, Cumbria also claims this, but lacks a regu ...

. Mountain Warehouse has continued to secure premises in market towns and locations popular with walkers and holidaymakers. On 9 March 2024, Mountain Warehouse opened its largest UK store yet on Boscawen Street in Truro, Cornwall. Mountain Warehouse opened its first North America outlet store in

Toronto, Ontario Toronto ( , locally pronounced or ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, most populous city in Canada. It is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Ontario. With a p ...

, Canada early 2014. It has since further expanded to other North American locations including

New Jersey, United States New Jersey is a U.S. state, state located in both the Mid-Atlantic States, Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern United States, Northeastern regions of the United States. Located at the geographic hub of the urban area, heavily urbanized Northeas ...

, Burlington, Canada and

Vancouver Vancouver is a major city in Western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the List of cities in British Columbia, most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the cit ...

, Canada. Mountain Warehouse's headquarters are located in

Victoria, London Victoria is an area of Westminster, Central London in the City of Westminster. It is named after Victoria Station, which is a major transport hub. The station was named after the nearby Victoria Street, opened 1851. The name is used to descr ...

. A store is also located nearby in Victoria Place in

London Victoria station Victoria station, also known as London Victoria, is a central London railway terminus and connected London Underground station in Victoria, in the City of Westminster, managed by Network Rail. Named after the nearby Victoria Street, the mai ...

Products

Mountain Warehouse has grown from a stock clearance business selling only branded products to a business that sells mainly

clothing Clothing (also known as clothes, garments, dress, apparel, or attire) is any item worn on a human human body, body. Typically, clothing is made of fabrics or textiles, but over time it has included garments made from animal skin and other thin s ...

footwear Footwear refers to garments worn on the feet, which typically serve the purpose of protective clothing, protection against adversities of the environment such as wear from rough ground; stability on slippery ground; and temperature. *Shoes and si ...

and equipment. In 2004 own brands including Mountain Life, Parallel and Snapdragon made up 10% of the business's products but by 2007 own brand products made up 65%. In 2010 the retailer introduced a more technical clothing range, Mountainlife Extreme. The Mountainlife Extreme clothing range was designed to compete with higher end brands such as

The North Face The North Face is an American outdoor recreation products company. The North Face produces outdoor clothing, footwear, and related equipment. Founded in 1968 to supply climbers, the company's logo draws inspiration from Half Dome, a distinct ...

and

Berghaus Berghaus Limited is a British outdoor clothing and equipment brand founded in Newcastle upon Tyne, North East England, and now headquartered in nearby Sunderland. It was founded in 1966 by climbers and mountaineers Peter Lockey and Gordon D ...

. The Mountainlife and Parallel branding has gradually been phased out with all clothing, footwear and equipment now branded with Mountain Warehouse. Mountainlife Extreme was replaced by Mountain Warehouse Extreme, with footwear, accessories and equipment also included in the range.

References

External links

* {{official website, http://www.mountainwarehouse.com/ Retail companies of the United Kingdom Retail companies established in 1997 Camping equipment manufacturers Outdoor clothing brands British brands