WGSN (trend forecasting)

WGSN
Company typePrivate
Founded1998; 26 years ago (1998)
Founders
  • Julian Worth
  • Marc Worth
HeadquartersWest London, UK
Owner
Websitewgsn.com

WGSN is a trend forecasting company with offices in London, New York, Hong Kong and São Paulo. It supplies global brands with consumer and product design forecasts and provides business and marketing consultancy to clients.

History

WGSN was founded in 1998 in West London by brothers Julian and Marc Worth. In October 2005, it was purchased by Emap (now Ascential),[1] a business-to-business publisher and exhibitions company, for £140m.[2]

In 2013, the firm merged with its biggest competitor, Stylesight.[3] Like WGSN, Stylesight had a vast library of fashion forecasting, trend information, archival photos, and even sketches and patterns for designers to use. Keeping the WGSN name, the new product has been designed around the technology developed by Stylesight and launched in 2014.[4]

In November 2017, the company bought Use Fashion (now Start by WGSN), a regional competitor in Brazil, launching its secondary business focused on fashion entrepreneurs.  

In 2024, WGSN announced an agreement between Apax Partners, a global private equity advisory firm, and Ascential for the acquisition of WGSN for £700m.[5] The transaction was completed in February of the same year.[6]

Products

As an online service, the business derives its revenues from 9 different product subscriptions (WGSN Insight, WGSN Fashion, WGSN Interiors, WGSN Beauty, WGSN Food & Drink, WGSN Consumer Tech, WGSN Barometer, Coloro, TrendCurve+) and a custom advisory business (WGSN Mindset).[7][8]

See also

References

  1. ^ "Ascential plans £800m initial public offering". Retrieved 2024-02-09.
  2. ^ Cozens, Claire; press; correspondent, publishing (2005-10-14). "Emap splashes out £140m on fashion portal". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 2024-02-09. {{cite news}}: |last3= has generic name (help)
  3. ^ Musgrave, Eric (2014-07-11). "Best of WGSN and Stylesight to be combined in new WGSN.com service". Drapers. Retrieved 2024-02-09.
  4. ^ "BoF Exclusive | WGSN Debuts Revamped Platform in Growth Drive". The Business of Fashion. 2014-08-04. Retrieved 2024-02-09.
  5. ^ "Funds advised by Apax complete acquisition of WGSN | Apax Global Alpha". www.apaxglobalalpha.com. 2024-02-02. Retrieved 2024-02-09.
  6. ^ "Apax Funds complete acquisition of leading trend forecasting business WGSN". Retrieved 2024-02-09.
  7. ^ "Products Archive". WGSN | Creating Tomorrow | Trend Forecasting & Analytics. Retrieved 2024-02-09.
  8. ^ "WGSN Debuts Revamped Platform in Growth Drive - Bloomberg". Retrieved 2024-02-09.
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