Mosaic fashions (Karen Millen, Principles) in administration

BlondeHeadOn

:eek:

Just seen as breaking news on the BBC. My favourite clothes shops! Oh no......

They have a lot of brands, I seem to recall.

SGE1

Meh.......

lostinrates

We can't say FC123 didn't warn us!

BlondeHeadOn

It's just got personal....

:sad:

BlondeHeadOn

More infor now available:

"A string of High Street brands owned by retail group Mosaic have gone into administration, but have then been sold to new owners.


Oasis, Karen Millen, Warehouse and Coast have been restructured and bought by a management group - Aurora Fashions - which includes Mosaic bosses.

The restructuring has saved 8,700 jobs in these businesses, says Deloitte.
But Principles and The Shoe Studio - two of Mosaic's other High Street chains have gone into administration.

The Principles brand employs over 2,300 staff and trades from over 400 outlets of which 94 are single stores and the remainder concession outlets.

The Shoe Studio brand employs 1,870 staff and trades from 13 single stores and 270 concessions.

The deal which saw several Mosiac brands sold on is known as a pre-packaged administration.

This is when a sale of an insolvent business is agreed before the administrator is appointed and is then rapidly executed without the business being offered on the open market.
Many argue that they are a useful tool for saving a firm where any delay could to destroy or severely reduce its value - preserving jobs in the process. "

Kez100

Poop to the unsecured creditors, is all that is.

Mosaic will continue for the time being.

donaldtramp

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/7919647.stm

Alan_M_2

So this will be another prepackaged administration deal. All the creditors get shafted, the company carries on unaffected......

Watchdog created a series out of this very thing, although it seems once it "saves jobs" and becomes for huge amounts of money it's perfectly acceptable. - Hypocrisy.

twirlypinky

I have to say, i was very relieved to see that Oasis isn't closing. Yet.

fc123

I have been waiting for this....patiently.;)

I read about it yesterday http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/industry_sectors/retailing/article5822061.ece

Mosaic also plans to shed unprofitable sites from the other chains as part of the restructuring.

I had a sniff something was up last Thursday, as manager of my neighbouring KM was being quizzed by a lady (who was deff not from KM head office, but from 'somewhere else'; Deloitte maybe? Apologies for being shallow, but I could tell by how she looked and talked ).
I was desperately trying to eavesdrop....but my ears aren't great. Wanted to get OH (as he has bionic ears nowadays) but he was busy inside our store.
Funniest Q was 'And where do your customers come from?'' ...I really wanted to wander up and say 'From the sky'' but don't think she would have appreciated the comment.

Soooooo.....my Glass Tower LL......who is now no longer in Mayfair...they have ust downsized to 'much cheaper office space near the city' according to their surveyor (could it be Hackney or Bethnal Grn?) could have had a pretty bad weekend.

Worse, his little firesale fell through last week too. They were desperate to flog the building off with my rent pushed up and Mosaic fascias still in situ.

Except, the very savvy investment company decided to visit the investment 2 weeks back. They are that good at investing in retail property, they decided to chat to some of their potential tenants. They also chatted to neighbouring shop owners (not part of the building)...just to confirm a few local issues that have affected local trade....................

..................and then they pulled out.


The KM I trade next to was the 3rd ever opened back in the early 90's. They went in on a bad lease but got a fat, reverse premium. It was how Kevin Stanford (shame...I have loads of trade gossip on him that would be inappropriate to reveal) expanded the chain.

Our area used to be a majority independent trading area. As the chains crept in , our rents went sky high....and now they may go....leaving a great big mess that will take time to unravel. Kevin Stanford flogged K Millen in 03 or 04 to the Icelanders and didn't fight the last rent review to the end on our St....consequently, I lost my rent review and the rest is history.

KS sailed off into the sunset with his millions (and then spent them on All Saints, Ghost....and sacked the original designers shortly afterwards....seriously), Bauger paid silly rent as it wasn't real money and now we are where we are now.

Funny world really.


The boss in charge at the property/pension unit trust that owns our building has his head stuck in the boom of 1986. He is losing his investors their pension money with his uselessness, lack of insight and total ignorance of where retailing is heading as an 'industry'.

He's in for a heavy month..........;)

fc123

Alan_M wrote: »

So this will be another prepackaged administration deal. All the creditors get shafted, the company carries on unaffected......

Watchdog created a series out of this very thing, although it seems once it "saves jobs" and becomes for huge amounts of money it's perfectly acceptable. - Hypocrisy.

Kaupthing and Lovelock have agreed to make sure that all the group’s suppliers will get paid in full – despite the administration process.

Good news for the suppliers....they have been on Pro forma since last October. Bad news for everyone else, those they don't want to deal with any longer.