Weird Fish

Exited in 2017

Weird Fish was founded in 1993 and has grown to become one of the UK’s leading wholesale brands in the active lifestyle clothing market, selling to over 350 independent and national accounts.

Having joined Weird Fish in 2006, John Stockton (who had been the driving force behind the growth of the Animal brand) recognised an opportunity existed to grow and develop Weird Fish from a niche to a mainstream leisure clothing brand.

Backed by Piper, who took a majority stake, John led the MBO of Weird Fish in 2010.

Piper’s investment and partnership had enabled Weird Fish to develop and grow the brand, with specific focus being placed on clarifying the brand’s positioning and marketing, developing a credible womenswear offer alongside the menswear range, and growing a significant online offer to complement the wholesale business.

We had lots of private equity interest but Piper were a bit different, they were not just interested in the numbers. The mix of skills works nicely

John Stockton, Managing Director, Weird Fish

The journey

1993 Weird Fish clothing is born
2006 John Stockton joins Weird Fish
2010 Piper backs John Stockton in an MBO
2011 Re-branding work completed
2012 Weird Fish grow its ecommerce sales by 60%
2017 Piper exit Weird Fish to Total Capital

Weird fish recruits new sales director

[13 Sep 2013] - Weird Fish, the Cheltenham-based casual leisure brand, has recruited Kelvin Vidler as international sales director. As former managing director of Americana International (the fashion group…

Read more

Current investments