High Street fashion chain Ted Baker is to close 15 UK stores and cut 245 jobs, administrators have said.

Eleven stores will close by 19 April, administrators for the brand's owner said, leading to 120 job losses.

In addition, 25 head office roles will go, and four stores that had been set to close prior to the administration will shut shortly, affecting 100 posts.

The firm behind Ted Baker's UK shops, No Ordinary Designer Label (NODL), hired administrators last month.

When it fell into administration, Ted Baker had about 975 employees in the UK and ran 46 shops, plus an e-commerce platform and department store concessions.

The fashion brand is owned by US firm Authentic Brands Group, which licensed the brand to NODL.

When NODL fell into administration itself last month, Authentic Brands said the "damage done" during a tie-up with another firm was "too much to overcome".

It said NODL had "built up a significant level of arrears" through a partnership with Dutch firm AARC, which ended in January this year.

The administrators said the stores scheduled to close "have no prospect of being returned to profitability, even with material rent reductions".

"Ted Baker is an iconic British brand with strong partners around the world," said joint administrator Benji Dymant.

"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."

The 11 stores closing by 19 April are:

Birmingham Bullring

Bristol

Bromley

Cambridge

Exeter

Leeds

Liverpool One

London Bridge

Milton Keynes

Nottingham

Oxford

The four stores that are set to close "in the coming weeks" are:

Bicester

London Brompton Road

London Floral Street

Manchester Trafford

Ted Baker began as a menswear brand in Glasgow in 1988, and grew to have shops across the UK and in the United States.

It also has licensing agreements in place for stores in cities in Asia and the Middle East.

Source:
courtesy of BBC NEWS

by BBC NEWS

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