What took so long? Inside Victoria Beckham's long road to profitability

Victoria Beckham Holdings Ltd reported an operating profit for the first time since it was created in 2008, the company announced on Monday. It rose 15 percent to 129.8 million pounds (175.7 million dollars) in the year to the end of December, marking the fifth consecutive year of double-digit revenue growth. It also posted a pre-tax profit of 3.38 million pounds (about 4.5 million dollars), compared with a loss of 4.85 million pounds (6.57 million dollars) the year before, while operating profit reached 7.3 million pounds (9.8 million dollars) against an operating loss of 1.6 million pounds (2.17 million dollars) in the previous year.

But why did it take so long?

With many companies struggling to achieve positive numbers, that answer might remain unanswered for the public. Luckily, that’s not the case when its founder is a global celebrity.

In 2025, former-Spice-Girls-turned-designer Victoria Beckham shared her attempts to establish her brand and achieve profitability in a Netflix documentary series, when the company was "tens of millions in the red," in her own words. Beckham revealed how her husband, David Beckham, once bailed out the company from risking bankruptcy. "For her to have to come to me and say, 'Can I have some... We need some more money, the business needs more money' - that was hard for both of us because I didn't have the money to keep doing this,” he said.

Victoria Beckham received a 30 million pound investment in 2017 by selling 30 percent of the company to NEO Investment Partners, who launched a restructure and helped her keep track of her expenses, which she referred to as "mind-blowing" waste in the series.

NEO's David Belhassen appeared in one of the episodes, saying the issue was that people were telling her what she wanted to hear. "I remember one of the expenses was the office plants. 'Cause she loves plants. And it was costing like 70,000 pounds a year. And then there was someone who was coming to water the plants for 15,000 pounds a year,” he said. Losses were 12.3 million pounds in 2018 and peaked at 16.6 million pounds in 2019, according to CB Insights.

In 2019, Beckham launched the beauty side of her company, which delivered its strongest performance in 2025, according to the company, as per the BBC. The success was led by the release of her Foundation Drops, which doubled the size of the skincare part of the company.

The fashion brand also repositioned in 2021, merging its diffusion line (Victoria, Victoria Beckham) into the main line (Victoria Beckham), streamlining supply chains, restructuring manufacturing operations, and ultimately going from a price point of 900 pounds to 550 pounds. The plan paid off.

"With two complementary growth engines in fashion and beauty, an increasingly international customer base and a focused operating model, the business is powerfully positioned for its next phase of profitable growth,” Belhassen told the BBC on Monday.

Beckham told the Financial Times they "have all worked hard for a long time for this moment of profitability and growth.”

"We've been very transparent about the problems that we had in the business but have recovered and are now growing at a sensible pace. After 20 years, people don't look at my brand as a celebrity brand any more,” she said.