Clothing retailer M&CO will disappear from high streets

M&CO is poised to leave British high streets after almost 200 years.

The Scottish company was a staple across the country for much of the last century, styling itself as a “fashion and lifestyle destination” for families.

At its peak it had almost 300 stores up and down the UK, yet after calling in the administrators last year amid soaring costs and flagging consumer confidence, its name is expected to go after no buyer could be found for its stores.

All 170 will close over the months to come – putting almost 2,000 jobs at risk. Teneo had kept the stores trading since the call for aid in December in hopes of a rescue, but none came.

The Facebook page of M&co’s Inverness store reads: “As we haven’t received any funded, deliverable offers that would result in the transfer of the stores or staff to a potential buyer, this means that all of our stores will close.

“The M&CO ‘brand’ has been purchased, but unfortunately this does not include a future for our stores, website or staff. We hope you will appreciate this is also a very difficult time for staff working in the stores and we ask for respect and understanding when raising an issue.” The M&CO brand and intellectual property was bought by AK Retail, which did not buy the stores themselves. AK Retail is the owner of specialist clothing brands Yours and Long Tall Sally.

Originally called Mackays, the company was founded in 1834 by Len and Ian Mcgeoch as a pawnbroker and switched to selling clothing in the 1950s. It changed its name to M&CO in 2005 to modernise the brand.

Annual sales reached the hundreds of millions in the 2010s, and by the latter years of the decade it was expanding rapidly. Yet since the onset of the pandemic it has endured collapses.

In August 2020, it called in administrators after being hammered by the effect of lockdowns, and was immediately bought back by its original owners, the Mcgeoch family, resulting in the closure of 47 shops and the loss of almost 400 jobs.

Over the 29 weeks to Feb 26 2021, it made a loss of £6.9m, financial documents show.

By the end of 2022, it was struggling to keep up amid soaring inflation and the cost of living crisis.