Mahabis halts trading as retail cull continues

MAHABIS, the start-up slipper brand popular with young consumers, has entered administration.

The company said that it had been forced to call in administrators on Thursday night and had ceased trading, closing its website with immediate effect.

Founder Ankur Shah had been the poster boy for UK start-ups having previously launched and sold a tech advertising company before establishing Mahabis in 2014 after realising there was no brand producing slippers for a global market.

The company was known for its forward-thinking work environment, letting employees work from home one day a week, and for its prominence on social media platforms such as Instagram.

According to its website, Mahabis

‘We are all desperately disappointed at this outcome. We ask that customers bear with us’

has sold almost a million pairs of slippers in more than 100 countries since its launch. Its slippers typically cost around £70, and their unique selling point was their interchangeable and brightly coloured rubber soles, meaning they could be worn outside as well as in the house.

“We are all desperately disappointed at this outcome,” the company said, urging customers to “bear with us as we do our best to work through the current circumstances”. It also warned that customers were unlikely to obtain refunds if they returned goods, potentially hitting people who received the slippers for Christmas.

Its most recent accounts showed that the company owed £2.6m to creditors in the 12 months to June 2017, up from £927,000 a year previously. It employs around 20 people.

In an interview with The Times in October, Mr Shah brushed off concerns that Mahabis was susceptible to wider chills in the retail sector that had forced the closure of other niche brands including Orla Kiely’s design company.

“As long as we carry on making stuff for customers that they want, we won’t have a problem,” he said.