Section:GDN 1N PaGe:27 Edition Date:190807 Edition:01 Zone: Sent at 6/8/2019 20:08 cYanmaGentaYellowbl
Wednesday 7 August 2019 The Guardian •
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FTSE 100 All share Dow Indl Nikkei 225 £/€ £/$
1.2169+0.0024 +0.00291,100 jobs at risk as Boohoo buys
Karen Millen and Coast online
Sarah Butler and Jasper JollyMore than 200 Karen Millen and Coast
fashion outlets are to close, putting up
to 1,100 jobs at risk, after the brands’
online business was bought out of
administration by the internet retailer
Boohoo for £18m.
Administrators at Deloitte said 62
head offi ce staff had been made redun-
dant with immediate eff ect and stores
would only stay open for “a short time”
while stock is sold off.
The two chains trade from 32 stand-
alone UK stores and 177 concessions in
department stores including Deben-
hams and House of Fraser.
Like many other retailers, the fash-
ion chains have suff ered from highercosts, falling high street sales, weak
consumer confi dence and changing
shopping habits.
Other fashion chains that have col-
lapsed this year include Jack Wills,
LK Bennett, Pretty Green and Select.
Some chains have been forced to seek
rescue rent cuts to survive, including
Philip Green’s Arcadia, Debenhams
and Monsoon Accessorize.
Rob Harding, joint administrator at
Deloitte, said: “ The retail trading envi-
ronment in the UK remains extremely
challenging.” He said Karen Millen had
tried and failed to fi nd a buyer for the
whole business, but the deal with
Boohoo would enable “ the survival
of these iconic British brands through
an online platform”.
Boohoo said the two brands had
online sales from their own websitesof just over £28m and would be “highly
complementary additions” to its port-
folio of brands, which already include
PrettyLittleThing, Nasty Gal and
MissPap.
Kevin Stanford, who co-founded
the group with his former wife, Karen
Millen, in 1981 before the pair sold
the business to Icelandic investment
fi rm Baugur in 2004, said he thought
Boohoo would make a better job of
looking after the brand than its owner,
the Icelandic bank Kaupthing.
“It’s really sad for all the people
working there but something had to
happen as the current owners have
sadly destroyed the brand ... That’s
what happens when banks run fash-
ion companies.”
Millen added: “I feel a great sense
of loss that a brand that became iconicon the high street and across the world
is now likely to close its doors and put
an end to everything we put our heart
and soul into. I feel sad for everyone
who stands to lose their jobs. ”
Karen Millen and Coast together
employ about 1,100 people across the
UK. None of these have been taken on
by Boohoo.
Both brands also have outlets
overseas: Coast in the Middle East , Sin-
gapore and Malaysia and Karen Millen
in the US and Australia, plus conces-
sions and franchise stores in 63 other
countries. Deloitte said the overseas
businesses would continue trading
“in the short term”, suggesting the y
will also close in the coming months.
The Karen Millen holding company
lost £5.7m in the year end ed February
2018 after losing £11.9m the previous
year. The two brands had combined
sales of £174m in the year to Febru-
ary 2019.
Boohoo was founded by Mahmud
Kamani and Carol Kane in 2006. It
fl oated on the stock market in 2014 and
its value has since soared. Its shares
climbed 4% after the Karen Millen deal
was unveiled, valuing it at £2.8bn. A catwalk
show in Jakarta,
Indonesia;
Karen Millen
became known
worldwide
PHOTOGRAPH:
LEONARD ADAM/GETTYDomino’s Pizza
spends £7m on
tomato sauce
stockpile for
no-deal Brexit
Jasper JollyDomino’s Pizza Group has spent £7m
stockpiling ingredients including
tomato sauce in case a no-deal Brexit
disrupts supplies.
The company said the probability
of shortages of ingredients since its
last update in March had increased.
Domino’s buys fl our and cheese in
the UK but it gets the tomato sauce for
its pizza bases from Portugal. Other
imported ingredients added to the
stockpile include frozen chicken and
all long-life ambient products, such as
tuna and pineapple.
British importers of perishable food
are particularly exposed to the threat
of a no-deal Brexit, which most trade
experts believe would cause delays at
the border and increase the possibil-
ity of higher prices. Boris Johnson’s
government has committed to leaving
the EU on 31 October with or without
a deal.
“A potential no-deal Brexit carries
the increased risk of disruption to raw
material supplies into the UK and for-
eign exchange volatility which could
increase food costs,” Domino’s said
yesterday.
Any Brexit disruption would come
at a tricky time for Domino’s, which is
searching for new leadership amid a
stuttering European expansion drive
and a long-running dispute with fran-
chise holders over the share of profi ts.
The chief executive, David Wild ,
will step down this year after a succes-
sor ha d been found, the company said.
Stephen Hemsley, the chair of Dom-
ino’s board, will leave the company
after overseeing the recruitment of
Wild’s replacement, after which a suc-
cessor will “refresh” the board.
Wild will continue to oversee dis-
cussions with franchisees, who have
refused to open more stores until
they are given a bigger share of prof-
its, according to the Sunday Times.
Wild said conditions at its European
operations were “very challenging and
trading visibility remains limited”.
Sales in Europe fell by 3.4% year-on-
year in the fi rst six months of 2019.▲ Domino’s said that volatility after
Brexit could increase food costs‘I feel a great
sense of loss
that a brand
that became
iconic on the
high street is
now likely
to close’Karen Millen
Co-founderDepartment store chain Barneys
New York fi les for bankruptcy
Sarah ButlerBarneys New York , the US luxury
department store chain made famous
by Sex and the City, has fi led for bank-
ruptcy and put itself up for sale.
The retailer, which fi rst opened in1923, said it would close 15 of its 22
stores, including fl agship branches in
Chicago, Las Vegas and Seattle, fi ve
small concept outlets and seven dis-
count stores. Barneys’ fl agship shops
on New York’s Madison Avenue, and in
Beverly Hills, San Francisco and Bos-
ton, are to remain open.
The decision to fi le for chapter 11bankruptcy protection is the latest
sign of a tough trading backdrop for
US retailers, who are expected to close
9,000 stores this year, according to
property specialists.
Like many stores globally, Barneys
has been hit by rising rent s and heavy
competition from online rivals. Sears
fi led for bankruptcy last October while
JC Penney and Macy’s have been clos-
ing outlets. Barneys is continuing to
trade after securing $75m (£62m) in
new funds from Hilco Global and Gor-
don Brothers Group, which both have
a history of snapping up distressedfi rms. Barneys is owned by the investor
Richard Perry and the private equity
fi rm Yucaipa Capital. It previously
fi led for bankruptcy in the 90s before
a revival in the days of the designer -
obsessed, shopaholic characters in the
Sex and the City TV series (1998-2004).
In papers fi led in a bankruptcy court ,
the chain said it had debts of between
$100m and $500m. The chief execu-
tive, Daniella Vitale , said it had been
“dramatically impacted by the chal-
lenging retail environment and rent
structures that are excessively high
relative to market demand”.РЕЛИЗ ПОДГОТОВИЛА ГРУППА "What's News" VK.COM/WSNWS