More than a dozen Ted Baker stores set to close – including its Trafford Centre shop

Administrators for Ted Baker’s stricken UK retail business have announced plans to shut 15 shops and administrators say 11 of the Ted Baker stores will be shut by Friday, April 19.

Almost 250 jobs are set to be axed as a result of the closures and cuts to the fashion brand’s head office.

The company behind the fashion brand’s UK shops, No Ordinary Designer Label Limited (NODL), hired administrators from Teneo last month.

And today, Monday, April 8, administrators said 11 Ted Baker stores will be shut by the end of next week, with the loss of around 120 jobs.

Meanwhile, around 25 head office workers will also be made redundant in a bid to cut central costs.

The first 11 to close are in Birmingham, Bristol, Bromley, Cambridge, Exeter, Leeds, Liverpool, London Bridge, Milton Keynes, Nottingham and Oxford.

And the administrators revealed four further stores, including the Trafford Centre shop, along with an outlet in Bicester and two more in London, will close after landlords served notice on the sites prior to the insolvency.

These stores will shut “in the coming weeks” and result in another 100 job losses.

The administrators said they have earmarked stores for closure which are currently loss-making and believe “have no prospect of being returned to profitability, even with material rent reductions”.

Authentic Brands, the US-based firm behind Juicy Couture and Reebok, is still the owner of Ted Baker’s intellectual property.

It is “currently in the process” of finding a new partner to run the Ted Baker retail and online business in the UK and Europe.

Ted Baker had 46 UK stores and employed around 975 people prior to the insolvency.

NODL partly blamed the process on “damage” done during a partnership with Dutch company AARC Group and the “significant level of arrears” that had built up during the association.

No Ordinary Designer Label decided to end the partnership with AARC in January, saying that the partner had not met its promises to inject cash into the business.

Benji Dymant, joint administrator, said: “Ted Baker is an iconic British brand with strong partners around the world.

“These store closures, whilst with a regrettable impact on valued team members, will improve the performance of the business, as Authentic continues to progress discussions with potential UK and European operating partners for the Ted Baker brand to bring the business back to health.

“We would like to thank Ted Baker team members and partners for their ongoing efforts and support at this difficult time.”

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