Administrators for Ted Baker’s UK retail business have announced plans to shut 15 shops, and where.
Almost 250 jobs are set to be axed as a result of the closures and cuts to the fashion brand’s head office.
The administrators said 11 Ted Baker stores will be shut by April 19.
This will affect the following stores:
Birmingham Bullring
Bristol
Bromley
Cambridge
Exeter
Leed
Liverpool On
London Bridge
Milton Keynes
Nottingham
Oxford
The administrators also revealed four further stores will close after landlords served notice on the sites prior to the insolvency.
This will affect the following stores:
Bicester
London Brompton Road
London Floral Street
Manchester Trafford
These stores will shut “in the coming weeks” and result in another 100 job losses.
The administrators said they have earmarked stores for closure which are currently loss-making and believe “have no prospect of being returned to profitability, even with material rent reductions”.
Authentic Brands, the US-based firm behind Juicy Couture and Reebok, is still the owner of Ted Baker’s intellectual property.
It is “currently in the process” of finding a new partner to run the Ted Baker retail and online business in the UK and Europe.
Ted Baker had 46 UK stores and employed around 975 people prior to the insolvency.
NODL partly blamed the process on “damage” done during a partnership with Dutch company AARC Group and the “significant level of arrears” that had built up during the association.
No Ordinary Designer Label decided to end the partnership with AARC in January, saying that the partner had not met its promises to inject cash into the business.
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.
“We would like to thank Ted Baker team members and partners for their ongoing efforts and support at this difficult time.”