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Boohoo buys Dorothy Perkins, Wallis and Burton putting 2,450 jobs at risk

Written By:
Guest Author
Posted:
08/02/2021
Updated:
08/02/2021

Guest Author:
Emma Lunn

Boohoo is to pay £25.2m for the three Arcadia brands, with administrators confirming most staff will lose their jobs.

The Boohoo deal includes brand names, e-commerce, and stock of Dorothy Perkins, Wallis and Burton, but not the retailers’ stores, concessions or franchises.

Administrators at Deloitte confirmed only 260 jobs were to transfer to Boohoo under the deal. All 214 Burton, Dorothy Perkins and Wallis stores – already shut by pandemic restrictions – will be permanently closed.

Arcadia went into administration in December. It had 444 sites in the UK and 22 overseas.

It was announced last week that ASOS had bought Topshop, Topman, Miss Selfridge and HIIT. As with the Boohoo acquisition of Dorothy Perkins, Wallis and Burton, the deal included brands and stock, but not physical stores.

A statement from Deloitte said: “This transaction completes the sale of the Arcadia brands and follows the sale of Topshop, Topman, Miss Selfridge and HIIT to ASOS plc on 4 February 2021 and the sale of Evans to City Chic on 23 December 2020.

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“In total, these sales together with other asset realisations, have raised proceeds to date of over £500m for the benefit of creditors. The process to generate proceeds from the group’s remaining assets, principally from the group’s property portfolio, is ongoing.”

Susannah Streeter, senior investment and markets analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown, said: ‘’Boohoo’s bargain hunt has come up trumps again with the Dorothy Perkins, Wallis and Burton brands added to its basket at the red sticker price of £25.2m.

“This purchase is part of a grand master plan by Boohoo to become the UK’s largest retail marketplace and propel its international expansion. Central to that strategy was the acquisition of the Debenhams brand and its successful website.

“As with the Debenhams deal, Boohoo is only interested in the brands, seeing no value in the store estate as the shift to digital sales continues to accelerate. The rescue of the famous names, won’t help the prospects of at least 2450 shop workers who are still facing redundancy.”