Companies

Ted Baker UK to close 15 stores and cut nearly 250 jobs

Apr 11, 2024 United Kingdom

Ted Baker is to close 15 of its stores across the UK within weeks and make 245 store and head office jobs redundant. The brand’s UK and Europe arm went into administration last month

According to the joint administrators at Teneo, Benji Dymant and Daniel Smith, 11 unprofitable stores are expected to close by the 19^th of April, resulting in the loss of 145 store (120) and head office (25) jobs. The stores impacted in the closures include Birmingham Bullring, Bristol, Bromley, Cambridge, Exeter, Leeds, Liverpool One, London Bridge, Milton Keynes, Nottingham, and Oxford.

These stores are loss-making and, “have no prospect of being returned to profitability, even with material rent reductions”, the administrators said. “As such, their closure is believed to be a constructive and necessary step in ensuring the business can deliver a profitable trading performance in the future”.

In addition, 4 stores – located in Bicester, London and Manchester – will close at the request of their respective landlords, with a further 100 jobs set to be lost.

Meanwhile, Authentic Brands Group (ABG), which owns Ted Baker’s intellectual property, said it was in the process of finding a new operating partner for the brand's retail and e-commerce business in the UK and Europe. Dymant said the store closures “will improve the performance of the business as Authentic continues to progress discussions with potential UK and European operating partners for the Ted Baker brand to bring the business back to health.”

The UK and European arm of Ted Baker went into administration last month after ABG’s Dutch partner AARC, which operated Ted Baker's retail stores and websites in the UK and Europe from April 2023, failed to meet its financial obligations. As previously reported, the brand management company insists that the US arm of Ted Baker remains unaffected.

Image Credits: drapersonline.com

Store United Kingdom Employment Fashion