Curtains as Cath Kidston goes bust and axes 60 stores
RETRO- INSPIRED retailer Cath Kidston is closing all 60 of its UK stores after it buckled under the strain of the coronavirus lockdown.
More than 900 staff will be made redundant, and the company will go into administration.
But there is a sliver of hope for the stricken fashion and homeware brand, as its Hong Kong-based owner agreed it can continue trading online and via its worldwide stores, which total over 100.
The deal means the vintage chain, whose celebrity fans include Daisy Lowe and the Duchess of Cambridge, must shut its UK network of shops.
This will save just 32 of around 940 jobs at the company, while the other 908 staff will be made redundant.
The company will now be put into administration before it re-emerges as a smaller business. It is the latest in a string of high street names to call in administrators in recent weeks – following the likes of Laura Ashley, Warehouse and Debenhams.
The first Cath Kidston store was opened by the British designer in 1993, selling ‘car boot finds’ and vintage fabric. The patterns included polka dot designs in bright colours that harked back to 1950s suburbia, as well as kitsch florals and animal designs.
It now sells homeware and fashion, as well as more practical items like wellington boots, pictured, and rain macs.
Cath Kidston’s celebrity fans include pop singer Sophie Ellis-Bextor, DJ Jo Whiley, Made in Chelsea star Millie Mackintosh and Jamie Oliver’s wife Jools.
Radio and TV presenter Fearne Cotton teamed up with the company twice to release collections of clothing, bags and accessories. Miss Cotton’s range in 2018 used positive slogans and inspiration from her children.
Inheriting her mother’s fondness for the brand, Princess Charlotte wore a Cath Kidston pony-patterned rucksack on her first day of nursery school.
Equally, the company’s tills were sent into overdrive in 2014 when the then 16-month- old Prince George wore a £32 knitted tank top for his official Christmas portrait, featuring guardsmen in red tunics and bearskin hats.
But Miss Kidston’s famous connections don’t stop there.
She was in the year above Princess Diana at West Heath boarding school in Kent in the 1970s, and is the cousin of TV presenter Kirstie Allsopp. Miss Allsop’s father, Charles Henry Allsopp, is a former chairman of Christie’s auction house.
Much as the brand has enjoyed success, Miss Kidston has acknowledged her designs aren’t to everybody’s taste.
Appearing on BBC Radio 4’s Desert Island Discs, she described her style as provoking a ‘Marmite reaction’: ‘People either love it and want a little bit of it very much, or want to stab us.’
Miss Kidston met her partner, record producer Hugh Padgham, when she visited his home as a decorator while working for socialite Nicky Haslam. She made a multi-million pound fortunate after selling a majority stake in the firm to US private equity group TA Associates in 2010.
In 2014, Baring Pr i v a t e Equity Asia – its current owner – became a shareholder before taking full control two years later. Cath Kidston makes around twothirds of its turnover in the UK, despite becoming a global brand that has been particularly popular in Asia. But it has also struggled more recently – it lost more than £27million in the last two financial years and was looking for a buyer to save the business before lockdown measures were brought in last month. It had appointed restructuring experts to work on a strategic review of the company but no suitable buyer was found. Melinda Paraie, Cath Kidston chief executive, said it was ‘extremely difficult’ to ‘ say goodbye to many colleagues’.