Fashion
‘End of an era’ say shoppers as high-street brand to shut all Scots stores TODAY
FANS of a major high street fashion brand have been left gutted after it emerged that all stores across Scotland will close by the end of the day.
The retailer fell into administration back in March after struggling financially for a number of years.
And in Glasgow, shoppers have already cleared the shelves of stock with shutters already down on its Buchanan Street store.
Popular brand Ted Baker, which was founded in Glasgow in 1988, was forced to call in administrators and filed a notice of intention five months ago.
No Ordinary Designer Label is owned by Authentic Brands Group (ABG) and trades as Ted Baker.
But the firm collapsed after a deal between ABG and a Dutch operating partner, that was meant to run the store operations, went sour.
Administrators at Teneo have been desperately trying to find a buyer and were linked with House of Fraser, owned by Mike Ashley’s Frasers Group.
However, it is understood that the firm pulled out after early talks.
Ted Baker, known for its suits, shirts and dresses, had around 975 employees and 46 shops in the UK and Europe.
Ted Baker is an iconic retailer. This is terrible news
User on X
But 245 people lost their jobs after 15 stores across the UK closed for good after the announcement in March.
While it was hoped that the remaining 31 stores would stay open, bosses revealed that they will shut by the end of the day.
This means that the five stores across Scotland will serve customers for the final time today.
The includes the one on Glasgow‘s Buchanan Street and one on George Street in Edinburgh.
This is another store in Livingston’s Designer Outlet, Overgate Shopping Centre in Dundee and Union Square Shopping Centre in Aberdeen.
There are also two concession stores in Frasers and John Lewis in Glasgow.
The Scottish Sun visited their store at Glasgow’s store on Buchanan Street today but it was already closed.
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Shoppers have been left gutted by the closures, with some saying it is a “big loss” to the high street.
Posting on X, formerly known as Twitter, one person said: “Ted Baker is an iconic retailer. This is terrible news.”
Another added: “Genuinely gutted. I love Ted Baker. I have dozens of their clothes and accessories. Hopefully the brand will find a way to continue and relaunch over time”.
Someone else wrote: “The end of the Ted Baker era”.
While a fourth posted: “What a shame that Ted Baker has gone”.
And a fifth chimed in: “Such a shame. I love Ted Baker stuff and they were always on the edge of sophisticated quality fashion. Big loss”.
Back in February, bosses at ABG said they were exploring several cost-cutting measures to deal with financial problems.
The company was trying to shore up its soaring costs after ABG took over in 2022.
Why are retailers closing shops?
EMPTY shops have become an eyesore on many high streets acorsd the UK and are often symbolic of a town centre’s decline.
The Sun’s business editor Ashley Armstrong explains why so many retailers are shutting their doors.
In many cases, retailers are shutting stores because they are no longer the money-makers they once were because of the rise of online shopping.
Falling store sales and rising staff costs have made it even more expensive for shops to stay open. In some cases, retailers are shutting a store and reopening a new shop at the other end of a high street to reflect how a town has changed.
The problem is that when a big shop closes, footfall falls across the local high street, which puts more shops at risk of closing.
Retail parks are increasingly popular with shoppers, who want to be able to get easy, free parking at a time when local councils have hiked parking charges in towns.
Many retailers including Next and Marks & Spencer have been shutting stores on the high street and taking bigger stores in better-performing retail parks instead.
Boss Stuart Machin recently said that when it relocated a tired store in Chesterfield to a new big store in a retail park half a mile away, its sales in the area rose by 103 per cent.
In some cases, stores have been shut when a retailer goes bust, as in the case of Wilko, Debenhams Topshop, Dorothy Perkins and Paperchase to name a few.
What’s increasingly common is when a chain goes bust a rival retailer or private equity firm snaps up the intellectual property rights so they can own the brand and sell it online.
They may go on to open a handful of stores if there is customer demand, but there are rarely ever as many stores or in the same places.
The brand was taken over as part of a £211million deal after struggling for a few years.
Problems first arose for the high-street chain back in 2019 after founder Ray Kelvin quit his role.
He left after claims of inappropriate behaviour towards female staff emerged.
Shortly after they were issued with a number of profit warnings and a statement advising that the stock market profits would be lower than expected.
But in 2020 the firm hundreds of jobs were lost to raise more than £100million in a previous bid to shore up its balance sheet.
Read more on the Scottish Sun
It is understood that Ted Baker will continue to trade as normal through the process.
The news comes after Ted Baker quietly closed its flagship branch in Glasgow back in January.
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