Ted Baker to shut 15 shops and axe 245 jobs

Ted Baker is to shut 15 stores and cut around 245 jobs, administrators have announced.

The company behind the fashion brand’s UK shops, No Ordinary Designer Label Limited (NODL), hired administrators from Teneo last month.

On Monday, they said 11 Ted Baker stores will be shut by the end of next week, with the loss of around 120 jobs.

Meanwhile, around 25 head office workers will also be made redundant in a bid to cut central costs.

The administrators also revealed four further stores will close after landlords served notice on the sites prior to the insolvency.

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.”