Ted Baker is to close 11 of its UK stores while landlords have served notice on an additional four sites, which will collectively lead to 245 job losses at the retailer, adminstrators have revealed.
Approximately 120 roles are expected to be lost at the 11 stores the fashion retailer has decided to close, with an additional 100 redundancies from the stores landlords have served notice on.
A further 25 head office workers have also been made redundant due to “a necessary reduction in central costs”.
Teneo said the 11 stores it is closing are all currently loss-making and that, following a review by the joint administrators, are deemed to have “no prospect of returning to profitability, even with material rent reductions”. All sites will cease trading by 19 April.
The administrator insisted the closures were a “constructive and necessary step” in ensuring Ted Baker could deliver “a profitable trading performance in the future”.
The stores administrators will close:
- Birmingham Bullring
- Bristol
- Bromley
- Cambridge
- Exeter
- Leeds
- Liverpool One
- London Bridge
- Milton Keynes
- Nottingham
- Oxford
Meanwhile, landlords have also served notice on:
- Bicester
- London – Brompton Road
- London – Floral Street
- Manchester Trafford
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Joint administrator Benji Dymant 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.”
He added: “We would like to thank Ted Baker team members and partners for their ongoing efforts and support at this difficult time.”
In March, Ted Baker’s UK operator filed a notice to appoint administrators, putting hundreds of jobs at risk.
The move came around 18 months after ABG bought the fashion chain for £211m.
Authentic Brands Group, the owner of the intellectual property of the fashion retailer, is currently in the process of finding a new operating partner for the retail and ecommerce business in the UK and across Europe.
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