The Hunter Welly Boot

The consortium that manages the Hunter Boot has sold a majority stake to American private equity firm Searchlight Capital Partners, taking funding state side to help its push into the lucrative Chinese market. The simple welly has morphed from a farmers commodity foot wear into a cool luxury boot at £75-£225 a pair. As a brand the Hunter boot is British, premium and should, theoretically, be hotly desired by Chinese consumers

Whether you’re planning on doing a big muddy walk on boxing day, or have perhaps asked for a pair of these bad boys for Christmas, or simply have some stored away for the summer festivals these simple Wellington boots have turned themselves into one of the decades ‘must have’ pieces of footwear.

Founded over 50 years ago the Hunter wellington boot was a countryside staple. By the 1980s they started to grow in popularity as Lady Diana Spencer was regularly seen sporting a pair and for the sloaney wealthy upper-middle class country crowd the Hunter (along with the Barber) morphed into much more of a style item and status symbol than a green rubber boot. But it was in 2005 that the boot entered into a stage of its own when Kate Moss was seen wearing a pair at Glastonbury. Almost immediately the boot turned into a festival go-ers ‘must have’. The company expanded its product range to provide an array of stylish, wacky and cool boots penetrating this niche. But its success did not stop there, the wellington boot, now stamped with Moss’ approval, was strongly desired by the fashion world and soon wellington designed boots for the fashionista’s city life were being produced (we loved the patent black ones!)

In December 2010, Hunter reported a profit of £16 million on sales of £56 million (a 28% profit margin) in more than 20 countries. In order to move into Asia the British company (who have seen radical growth) now need to expand their knowledge pool which is where Searchlight (along with their funding) will come into play