Sir Philip Green’s Arcadia Group has entered into administration, putting 13,000 jobs at risk.
The group which owns Topshop, Topman, Miss Selfridge, Dorothy Perkins, Evans and Burton appointed administrators from Deloitte on Monday.
No redundancies have been announced so far and stores will continue to trade. All online orders will also be honoured, the group confirmed.
The group, which operates from approximately 444 leased sites in the UK and 22 overseas, employs around 13,000 people. A total of 9,294 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.
Matt Smith, joint administrator at Deloitte, said: “Arcadia sits at the heart of the High Street, and has been striving to combat the impact of COVID-19 throughout this year. Now the effect of the lockdowns, combined with broader challenges facing bricks and mortar retailers, have resulted in a critical funding requirement for the Group and today’s administration.
“We will now work with the existing management team and broader stakeholders to assess all options available for the future of the Group’s businesses.”
Deloitte said it will be seeking expressions of interest and will identify one of more buyers to “ensure the future success of the business”.
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