march-2011

THE
EAGLE
HAS
LANDED
International businessman Derrick Campbell
has turned knitwear company Lyle & Scott around,
rejuvenating its image – and its bank balance
THE ROSY-CHEEKED SCOT sitting across
the table in his suit and tie doesn’t look
particularly rock’n’roll. In fact, as he sips
a cappuccino in one of Carnaby Street’s
trendier bars, Derrick Campbell looks more
like a strict presbyterian headmaster than
the man behind one of Britain’s coolest
clothing companies.
But it’s because of 53-year-old Campbell
that Lyle & Scott, a Scottish fi rm once
famous for frumpy golf jumpers worn by
the likes of Nick Faldo, has been adopted
by hipsters such as the Arctic Monkeys,
Kasabian, Alexa Chung and Pete Doherty.
And with the credibility has come cash
– when Campbell became Lyle & Scott’s
managing director in 2004 it was trading
at a loss of £2m (€1.7m) a year. Last year, it
turned over £40m.
“We were lucky in a way,” he says with
a shy smile. “When I became head of the
company, the products we were making
– the close-fi t V-neck jumper and the
STEPHANIE THEOBALD
cardigan with the eagle logo – suited the
style of the rock bands of the time. The
more geeky, nerdy thing became cool.”
But luck is only half the story. “I knew
that the company had to change, so we
plundered the archives and came up with
a look we called Vintage, which combines
the romance of the past with the edgy
aesthetic of the present. It’s for young
men and women who want both.”
He later came up with a similar
collection called Heritage for the 40-plus
male, cleverly cut to help give older wearers
a more fl attering fi gure. The changes broke
with the company’s past, but in a way
Campbell’s innovations were entirely in
keeping with the aims of William Lyle and
Walter Scott when they fi rst set up shop in
1874. Scottish knitwear factories had been
churning out hosiery for years, but Lyle and
Scott realised there was a growing market
in quality underwear for the increasingly
wealthy middle classes.
BUSINESS | LYLE & SCOTT
MARCH 11 | TRAVELLER | 93