Coat firm fights off rainy day blues

AROUND 30 jobs have been saved at Altrincham-based Baker Street Clothing after its management team bought the bulk of the business back from administrators.

The business, which is owned by Joel Brown, appointed David Whitehouse and Steven Muncaster from the Manchester office of Duff & Phelps as joint administrators on April 18.

Mr Whitehouse told TheBusinessDesk that the company turned over around £10m supplying own-label outerwear to retailers such as Next, Debenhams and JD Sports, had suffered due to a general downturn in trading.

“It’s margins were being squeezed and trading became much more difficult,” he explained.

It traded from its Altrincham HQ, which had a number of design staff creating jackets that were then made in Bangladesh, a distribution depot at Stoke-on-Trent and an operation in Nottingham which made shorts.

The latter part of the business has not been bought back by Baker Street Clothing’s directors, but separate negotiations are ongoing with its own management team.

The deal was concluded on Thursday, April 26.