Just last week she was named Britain’s top entrepreneur for building a business empire expanding so fast that it is eclipsing her footballing husband.
And the cash has followed fast. The Beckham family fortune is put at £210 million – with Victoria responsible for £100 million of that. And some analysts conclude that she is out-earning David, particularly now that his playing days are over.
It is a fitting reward for the hard work that has seen the annual turnover of her company, Victoria Beckham Ltd, grow from a modest £1 million to £30 million in less than a decade. It has jumped from employing three people to a hundred.
Figures are projected to soar following the recent opening of her retail store in Mayfair. Another outlet is planned for New York next year.
Her clothes and accessories are by no means cheap – one of her handbags costs £18,000 (though this is nothing compared to the £130,000 cost of one bag in her own private collection). But celebrity fans such as Kate Winslet, Beyonce, and Sarah-Jessica Parker have inadvertently helped create a non-stop, and highly successful, advertising campaign for her VB brand.
So, how did ‘Posh Spice’ rise from being Queen of the WAGs to become one of Britain’s leading businesswomen?
Here the Mail on Sunday analyses the secrets of how she built up her business empire, how it makes its fortune – and how she invests it...
Her Spice Girls singing career is fast becoming a distant memory. Yet continuing royalties gave her £750,000 last year.
To date she has sold 100 million records worldwide and in 2007 Victoria netted a reported £10 million from the group’s wildly successful reunion tour.
Her 2001 autobiography and two other fashion and style books earned her at least £1 million.
There was also a six-figure sum for a 2007 reality TV show, Coming To America, about the family’s move to Los Angeles.
Few have the clout of the Beckhams when it comes to promoting products – whether theirs or someone else’s.
Now it is rumoured that Victoria is due to link up with H&M – famous for her husband’s underwear.
In 2009, she signed a £12 million, three-year deal with Armani. Two years later she was paid a reported £1 million for an advert for Japanese handbag designer Samantha Thavasa.
She received a six-figure sum for designing a Range Rover, while the 2007 advert for Tesco netted her and fellow Spice Girls £1 million each.
Victoria's fashion business turned over a reported £30 million last year and made an estimated £3 million in profit, almost double the year before.
Alongside an eye-wateringly expensive ready-to-wear collection sits a more affordable Victoria by Victoria Beckham, a range of denim, sunglasses, handbags, and now shoes and key rings costing between £150 to £485, which are exclusive to Victoria’s recently opened shop in Mayfair.
Business analysts predict her business will be worth about £200 million by 2019.
Part of Victoria’s success is down to the array of A-listers seen in her designs. Stars such as Gwyneth Paltrow, Michelle Dockery, Amanda Holden, Coleen Rooney and Rosamund Pike have all chosen Victoria’s frocks for red-carpet appearances, while Victoria herself has become a walking advert for her brand.
The power couple have sizeable property portfolio (£25 million is Victoria’s half share). They reportedly paid £30 million for their four-storey mansion in Kensington, West London. They also own a five-bedroom mansion in Beverly Hills and are thought to still own a beach hideaway on the island of Ko Samui, Thailand, and a winery in Napa, which David gave Victoria as a gift.
The Beckhams are said to have just bought a grand townhouse in Notting Hill, West London, The Mail on Sunday can reveal.
They plan to turn the mansion on Pembridge Square into headquarters large enough to house both Victoria’s fashion empire, currently based in Battersea, and David’s new ventures following his retirement from football.
Beckham Brand Ltd, representing them both, pulls in a profit of more than £ 1million a year. Their most prominent joint product is their perfume.
Since 2005, Victoria and David have produced a staggering 24 fragrances between them in a lucrative deal with perfume house Coty.
Six were Victoria’s, 18 David’s. Now the couple have reduced the range to six lines: For men there’s Classic, The Essence, Instinct, and Homme, while Signature and Intimately come in both his and hers scents.
Victoria has developed a keen eye for modern art and has a half share in the the Beckhams’ estimated £30 million collection, including work by Damien Hirst, Tracey Emin, Banksy and the Chapman brothers.
Many of the pieces have a love theme, and Victoria also commissioned Hirst to create Daddy’s Girl, a 7ft heart-shaped canvas adorned with butterflies for daughter Harper’s first birthday in 2012. It is said to be worth £600,000.
Victoria certainly has a taste for the finer things in life. She is a devotee of the Hermes Birkin bag and owns around 100, including this one, above. The collection is thought to be worth a total £1.5 million, with one of the priciest – a gift from David – being a rare £80,000 ‘Silver Himalayan’ complete with a three-carat diamond on the lock.
Victoria is also thought to own a rare Birkin bag in crocodile skin with gold metalwork. One of these set a record for the most expensive handbag when it sold at auction in 2011 for £129,865.
Victoria also has a £3.8 million jewellery collection, including no fewer than 13 engagement-type rings. One, an enormous heart-shaped diamond, is thought to be worth at least £1 million.
Since finishing his playing career, David has admitted feeling at a loose end. In contrast his wife has told friends she feels ‘fulfilled’ with her expanding empire.
David is hardly skint and still has his H&M underwear deal and deals to endorse firms such as Adidas, Breitling and Sky Sports. But turnover is down and his earnings may soon be eclipsed by his wife’s.
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