In the world of business, the online fashion retailer Boohoo has bought the Dorothy Perkins, Wallis and Burton brands from the Arcadia retail group for £25.2m. UNN’s Oliver Down understands that the deal only includes the respective brands and online businesses and not 214 shops combined, nor the 2,450 workers employed in the high street shops.
This deal marks the completion of the selling off of Sir Philip Green’s Arcadia group which fell into administration in 2020. Only last week, Asos bought Arcadia’s other leading brands, Topshop, Topman, Miss Selfridge and HIIT. The Arcadia group’s various brands had employed 13,000. A fraction of those will still be employed by the new owners.
Deloitte are the administrators facilitating the sales and they have said that around 2,450 staff would lose their jobs as a result of the Dorothy Perkins, Wallis and Burton sale. Around 260 jobs will be moving with the brands to Boohoo but these are predominantly at head office.
Boohoo’s chief executive John Lyttle has said: “Acquiring these well-known brands in British fashion out of administration ensures their heritage is sustained, while our investment aims to transform them into brands that are fit for the current market environment. We have a successful track record of integrating British heritage fashion brands onto our proven multi-brand platform, and we are looking forward to bringing these brands on board”.
Susannah Streeter is the markets analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown. She has said: “This purchase is part of a grandmaster plan by Boohoo to become the UK’s largest retail marketplace and propel its international expansion. As Boohoo expands, the final bricks of Sir Philip Green’s retail empire have been dislodged. Boohoo and Asos, dismissed as digital upstarts a decade ago are now the great disruptors in fashion, reaching the top branches of the retail tree.”
Current Affairs Correspondent | My name is Oliver Down I am 22, and a staunch brexiteer. I am a Bristolian lad who studied politics in Leicester. I believe in free speech and accurate journalism and I won’t be afraid to give you “the other side” of the story!
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