Bjorn Borg - from FLATLINING to £4.5M Profit
When a legacy name risks fading out.
By the mid 2000s, Björn Borg was coasting on heritage. A legendary name in sportswear, but in the UK and Ireland, the distribution business was running out of gas. Sales were flat, operations messy and the market had moved on.
In the UK, the brand was dangerously close to irrelevance. The reality? Björn Borg had the name, but not the presence. We saw the challenge: turn a failing distribution arm into a profitable, culture driving business or let it fold.
We approached the project with the same mindset we bring to every brand: treat the business like an experiment inside the Lab. The hypothesis: “reposition Björn Borg not as a discount sports label but as a premium player in the fashion retail ecosystem".
Instead of chasing bulk sales, we refocused on placement. Not everywhere. The right places. Harrods, Selfridges, Harvey Nichols, doors that shape how a brand is perceived. We dialled up the lifestyle narrative, putting Björn Borg into the same conversation as aspirational fashion brands. From day one, we thought about value creation. This wasn’t just about survival. It was about building an asset that could be sold back stronger than it was found.
The results were undeniable. Profit jumped from £1m to £5.5m. A distribution arm that had once been a liability became lean, credible and highly profitable. In the end, the rights were sold back to Björn Borg, creating a clean exit that left both the brand and the market stronger.
“We don’t see turnaround as firefighting, we see it as creating exit value. Every move was made with the endgame in mind, where the brand should sit, who it should partner with and how the numbers had to look when it came time to negotiate.”
For founders, the lesson is that brand equity doesn’t mean much if your model doesn’t work. For investors, it’s a demonstration that exit value can be engineered deliberately, not stumbled into. And for the culture at large, it’s a reminder that even legacy names can find new relevance if they’re willing to adapt.