Oasis and Warehouse close to collapsing into administration
The fashion chains Oasis and Warehouse are to collapse into administration as early as Wednesday, putting about 2,300 jobs at risk.
The advisory firm Deloitte will handle the insolvency process for the companies, which, until the coronavirus lockdown, operated 90 standalone stores and more than 400 concessions in department stores including Debenhams and House of Fraser.
The business, which is controlled by the Icelandic bank Kaupthing, had been seeking a new investor to take on the fashion chains. At least two prospective buyers are thought to have come forward but a deal is unlikely to be finalised before the imminent administration.
Uncertainty around the coronavirus crisis is understood to have made a solvent sale impossible to conclude, according to Sky News.
Oasis and Warehouse’s stores in the UK all closed temporarily last month under the government’s lockdown aimed at controlling the spread of coronavirus.
They continue to trade online. Staff are understood to have remained on full pay, and were not furloughed ahead of the insolvency process.
The talk of administration comes only days after Debenhams, a major stockist of Oasis and Warehouse fashions, also called in administrators as clothing retailers struggle to survive the high street shutdown.
Warehouse, founded in 1976 by designer Jeff Banks, and Oasis, founded in 1991 by entrepreneur brothers Michael and Maurice Bennett with Vivian Scott, recorded sales of £293.2m in the year to March 2019, up 6.5%. The group made a pretax profit of just £1.6m, recovering from a £10m loss a year before, but owed more than £40m in loans and overdrafts last year.
Kaupthing took control of Oasis and Warehouse in 2009 when the former parent group Mosaic collapsed into administration.
Mosaic, which also owned the Coast and Karen Millen chains, was hit by the slump in consumer spending during the financial crisis as well as the collapse of its then major shareholder, the Icelandic retail conglomerate Baugur.
Coast and Karen Millen closed their entire high street estate permanently last year after the brands were rescued out of administration by the online specialist Boohoo.