Arcadia Group enters administration
Arcadia Group has entered administration after the closure of non-essential stores during the second UK Covid-19 lockdown impacted trade. The move will put 13,000 jobs at risk.
In a statement, the group said Matt Smith and Dan Butters, together with other restructuring partners at Deloitte, have been appointed as joint administrators.
Arcadia owns eight of the UK’s best known high street fashion retailers including Topshop, Topman, Dorothy Perkins, Outfit, Burton, Miss Selfridge, Evans and Wallis.
While no redundancies are planned at present, the company’s stores and online channels will continue to trade as the administrators explore “all options” for the business including seeking a buyer. Arcadia operates from around 444 leased sites in the UK and 22 overseas.
Some 9,294 of its employees were on furlough at the time of the administrators’ appointment.
Ian Grabiner, chief executive of Arcadia, said: “This is an incredibly sad day for all of our colleagues as well as our suppliers and our many other stakeholders.
“The impact of the Covid-19 pandemic including the forced closure of our stores for prolonged periods has severely impacted on trading across all of our brands. Throughout this immensely challenging time our priority has been to protect jobs and preserve the financial stability of the group in the hope that we could ride out the pandemic and come out fighting on the other side. Ultimately, however, in the face of the most difficult trading conditions we have ever experienced, the obstacles we encountered were far too severe.
“Our priority now is to work closely with the administrators to deliver the best possible outcome for all our stakeholders, in particular our hard-working employees across the group. Throughout this process, trading will continue across all of our brands. Our stores will remain open or reopen when permitted under the Government Covid-19 restrictions, our online platforms will be fully operational and supplies to all of our partners will continue.”
Matt Smith, joint administrator at Deloitte, added: “We will be rapidly seeking expressions of interest and expect to identify one or more buyers to ensure the future success of the businesses. As administrators we’d like to thank all of the group’s employees, customers and business partners for their support, at what we appreciate is a difficult time.”
