Political Audit: New Look

New Look - Political Audit

Corporate Communications & Public Stance

No public evidence identified of any New Look corporate statement, press release, or executive comment specifically addressing the Israel-Palestine conflict, the Gaza war, the October 2023 escalation, the July 2024 ICJ advisory opinion, or the November 2024 ICC arrest warrants. By contrast, New Look publicly exited its Russia and Ukraine retail operations in 2022, framing the move as a response to “political uncertainty” ¹. New Look also maintains public-facing Pride Month content on its own site profiling LGBTQ+ staff, indicating the company does engage in social-issue-adjacent public communications on some topics ². No comparable public content, statement, or commentary on Israel-Palestine was located, establishing an asymmetry between New Look’s willingness to comment publicly on Ukraine/Pride-related matters and its silence on the Israel-Palestine conflict. No public evidence identified of New Look annual reports or PR materials referencing Middle East or Israel market operations ³.

Operations in Occupied or Contested Territories

No public evidence identified of New Look stores, franchisees, distributors, or subsidiary operations in Israel, the West Bank, East Jerusalem, or the Golan Heights. New Look does not appear in the UN OHCHR Database of Business Enterprises maintained pursuant to Human Rights Council Resolutions 31/36 and 53/25, most recently updated in September 2025 to list 158 enterprises from 11 countries ⁴⁵; reporting on that update names companies such as Airbnb, Booking.com, Expedia, TripAdvisor, and Heidelberg Materials AG, with New Look absent from the reported list ⁶. New Look has exited or reduced presence in several international markets in recent years, including closing stores across the Republic of Ireland in 2024/2025 and shifting to an online-only model via third-party platforms ⁷, but No public evidence identified ties any of these market changes to an Israel/OPT presence at any point. No legal challenges, regulatory actions, or international-body scrutiny of New Look tied to occupied-territory operations were identified, consistent with the absence of any documented territorial footprint there. On civil-society and boycott-campaign history, one partisan clearance source explicitly rates New Look “Boycott Safe” and states there is “no verified evidence proving that New Look… has any ties to Israel” ⁸. New Look does not appear on Ethical Consumer’s Palestine boycott list ⁹, nor on Muslim Girl’s list of BDS-targeted apparel brands, which instead names Adidas, Zara, Bershka, Next, M&S, Mango, H&M, Gap, Urban Outfitters, and Victoria’s Secret ¹⁰. No BDS Movement, Who Profits, or NGO Monitor listing naming New Look was located, and No public evidence identified of an organized boycott, divestment, or sanctions campaign targeting the company.

Internal Governance, Content & Retail Policies

No public evidence identified of HR actions, disciplinary cases, or legal disputes involving New Look staff over Israel-Palestine-related speech, symbols, or union activity; comparable workplace disputes were found at other companies (Delta Air Lines, Philz Coffee, Goldie/CookNSolo, PCC, and a UK transport operator facing pro-Israel legal-group pressure) but none named New Look. New Look is a physical and e-commerce fashion retailer rather than a content or platform operator, so platform/editorial moderation policy is not applicable, and No public evidence identified of regulatory inquiries into algorithmic moderation or editorial stances tied to the conflict. No public evidence identified of reports or regulatory actions regarding the labeling, sourcing, or categorization of New Look products originating from Israel or Israeli settlements; general searches for New Look modern-slavery or supply-chain statements did not surface country-specific sourcing detail relevant to Israel/OPT, and no primary supply-chain filing was directly reviewed in this audit, leaving country-of-origin sourcing an evidence gap.

Brand Heritage & State Partnerships

No public evidence identified that New Look uses military heritage, defense-sector ties, or state-security origins in its branding or public relations; the company’s founding narrative - Tom Singh opening the first store in Taunton in 1969 with a family loan - is a purely commercial origin story ¹¹¹². No public evidence identified of New Look accepting state honors, hosting Israeli government officials, or sponsoring “Brand Israel”-style cultural or public-relations campaigns.

Lobbying, Advocacy, Financing & Logistics

No public evidence identified of New Look corporate lobbying, political action committee donations, or leadership roles in geopolitical pressure groups related to Israel-Palestine policy, boycotts, or trade legislation, and no UK lobbying register or EU Transparency Register entry for New Look was located. No public evidence identified of New Look corporate donations to the Friends of the IDF (FIDF), the Jewish National Fund (JNF/KKL), Lev Echad, Israeli reservist funds, settlement organizations, Regavim, Im Tirtzu, or comparable military-welfare or settlement-support bodies. No public evidence identified of New Look directing corporate resources, logistics, or infrastructure to state, military, or state-aligned NGO efforts connected to the conflict. At the parent-shareholder level, Christo Wiese - the largest shareholder of Brait SE, a New Look parent-level investor - is named alongside “Rina Wiese” as a contact for Christian Friends of Israel (CFI), a Christian Zionist organization providing services in Israel, in an undated South African Jewish Report profile ¹³. No source located quantifies any donation amount, date, or the current status of this association, and no statement by Wiese specifically addressing the 2023-2025 Gaza war was identified, so this finding is presented as an unconfirmed, parent-level relationship rather than a New Look corporate act.

Corporate Structure & Primary Mission

New Look’s ownership is a private commercial structure. Following a 2015 acquisition, South African investment firm Brait SE took a controlling stake reported at approximately 90% at the time of the deal, with founder Tom Singh and management retaining a minority interest ¹⁴¹⁵. Later reporting describes Brait’s stake as reduced to roughly 18.5%, while a subsequent restructuring has been reported as leaving New Look approximately 90% owned jointly by credit-fund manager Alcentra and Brait, with Tom Singh retaining around 10% ¹⁶. New Look Group has reportedly engaged Rothschild for a strategic review or possible sale ¹⁶. New Look Group publishes its financial disclosures and reports directly ³. No golden shares, state ownership stakes, or charter language tying New Look’s mission to any state’s geopolitical goals were identified; the company’s foundational mandate is that of a standard high-street fashion retailer. Christo Wiese’s own history includes substantial financial losses tied to the Steinhoff accounting scandal and a subsequent legal battle to recover value ¹⁷¹⁸¹⁹, but No public evidence identified links these matters to New Look’s operations or mission.

Executive & Leadership Footprint

The current New Look Group board, as published on the company’s own site, comprises Mike Coupe (Non-Executive Chairman), Helen Connolly (CEO), Richard Collyer (CFO), Richard Cotter, Colin Henry, and Robin Terrell (Independent Non-Executive Directors), and Stuart MacKenzie and Laurence Raven (Non-Executive Directors) ²⁰. Mike Coupe was appointed New Look chairman in 2022 ²¹, having previously served as CEO of Sainsbury’s from 2014 to 2020 ²¹. Helen Connolly was promoted to New Look CEO in 2022 ²². In July 2014, as incoming Sainsbury’s CEO, Coupe was the addressee of a “Taste the Indifference” campaign letter - signed by groups including Jews for Boycotting Israeli Goods, Palestine Solidarity Campaign, Boycott Israel Network, and the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions - urging Sainsbury’s to stop trading with suppliers sourcing from West Bank settlements, specifically naming SodaStream (manufactured in the Mishor Adumim settlement) and settlement-linked suppliers Mehadrin and Edom ²³. This episode predates Coupe’s New Look role by roughly eight years, occurred at a different company, and No public evidence identified connects it to any ongoing or New Look-linked activity; it is presented here as background context on his prior tenure rather than a New Look corporate act. Tom Singh, New Look’s founder, retired as an executive in 2019 and is associated with several philanthropic initiatives, including the Pakhar Foundation, the “New Look Foundation,” the British Asian Trust, NSPCC support, and Rianta Philanthropy ¹¹¹². No public evidence identified links Singh’s personal philanthropy to Israel, Palestine, FIDF, JNF, or related advocacy organizations. No public evidence identified of public statements, op-eds, social media activity, or signed letters by Helen Connolly, Mike Coupe (in his New Look capacity), Richard Collyer, or other current New Look board members regarding the Israel-Palestine conflict. No public evidence identified of any current New Look board member or executive holding board seats or advisory roles in CFI, AIPAC, FIDF, JNF, Regavim, Im Tirtzu, or comparable organizations; the only identified CFI association (Christo Wiese) sits at the Brait/parent-shareholder level rather than the New Look board level and remains unconfirmed as current ¹³.