Arcadia Leeds site closing with loss of 400 jobs 'once employed 14,000 workers'

The former Burton factory in Burmantofts has been in operation since 1922 - most recently as a distribution centre for Arcadia stores including Dorothy Perkins, Wallis and Burtons.

When online fashion retailer Boohoo bought the three brands and their websites for £25.2m earlier this month, administrators Deloitte said the deal did not include their 214 remaining shops.

Around 260 jobs, mainly head office roles in design, buying and merchandising roles in the businesses' digital wings, were to be saved, with almost 2,500 retail staff finding themselves without work.

And yesterday, workers at Arcadia's Leeds distribution centre had their worst fears confirmed as they learned that they too were going to lose their jobs.

A consultation period will begin on Wednesday and end on April 30 when the site off Torre Road will shut its doors for good.

Jake O’Malley, an organiser with the GMB union, told the Yorkshire Evening Post: "It's been open for just shy of 100 years and providing jobs in the community. When I've gone in, they're local to Leeds. Some have worked there 30 years.

"It provided for 14,000 in its heyday. It's come to a very sad end."

Referring to former Arcadia boss Sir Phillip Green, he said: "Families have worked through generations in these places and it's been done away through the mismanagement of one person.

"People have given their life's work for a company and now they'll be thrown on the heap. It's disgraceful."

Mr O'Malley said the administrators and others stood to make a lot of money, yet the staff at the Leeds distribution centre had been left out in the cold.

He said they would each have to apply to the Government's redundancy service, adding that taxpayers would fund packages for the employees while Sir Philip "sales about on his yacht".

Last month Boohoo said it had bought the brand and website of department store chain Debenhams for £55m. But it did not take on the company's 118 stores, meaning around 12,000 jobs were likely to be lost.

And more recently rival firm Asos, also an online fashion retailer, signed a £330m deal to buy Acardia's Topshop, Topman, Miss Selfridge and HIIT brands without the associated shops.

It means administrators have now sold all of Arcadia's brands, raising around £500m to pay off creditors. It is now in the process of selling off the remaining properties in the portfolio.

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