Almost 250 jobs lost as Ted Baker announces store closures
Ted Baker has announced that it will close 11 stores and cut head office roles, resulting in 145 redundancies.
120 store staff alongside 25 head office roles have been axed as administrators at Teneo look to reduce central costs at the fashion brand. Another four stores will close after landlords served notice on the sites, resulting in a further 100 redundancies.
Stores set to be shut by administrators are currently loss-making, with no prospect of being returned to profitability even with material rent reductions.
The stores to be closed and cease trading by April 19 as part of the administration are:
- Birmingham Bullring
- Bristol
- Bromley
- Cambridge
- Exeter
- Leeds
- Liverpool One
- London Bridge
- Milton Keynes
- Nottingham
- Oxford
Closing stores after landlords served notice on the sites:
- Bicester
- London – Brompton Road
- London – Floral Street
- Manchester Trafford
The fashion brand, which had 46 stores across the UK and Europe, appointed Teneo on March 22 after trading well below forecast in Q4 and built up a significant level of arrears.
Ted Baker’s collapse came just seven weeks after the termination of Ted Baker’s partnership with AARC Group, a Dutch retail company, that owned and operated the brand’s retail stores and e-commerce platform.
ARRC failed to meet financial obligations and inject promised funding into the business and was therefore removed as a licence partner.
Authentic Brands Group the owner of the intellectual property of Ted Baker, is currently in the process of finding a new operating partner for the retail and e-commerce business in the UK and across Europe.
Benji Dymant, joint administrator said: “Ted Baker is an iconic British brand with strong partners around the world. These store closures, whilst with a regrettable impact on valued team members, 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”.
