'Awful' impact on Leeds workers as Dorothy Perkins, Wallis and Burton shops close

Administrators announced today that the high street brands had been bought by online fashion retailer Boohoo for £25.2m in a deal that does not include any shops, meaning around 2,450 staff set to be made redundant across the country.

Joanne Thomas, North East divisional officer for shopworkers union Usdaw, said its immediate focus was on supporting those who were losing their jobs as a result.

"There will be hundreds of people in Leeds," she said. "This has a disproportionate impact on young women as they tend to be the demographic of workers that work in the stores.

"We've had a campaign to save and resurrect the high street for quite a few years now but the pandemic has obviously exacerbated the situation. We're doing everything we can to support our membership, to call upon the Government to make sure there's the right strategy to fix this and get people shopping in the high street when they can."

Staff at the three brands were emailed this morning and it was expected that they would receive further information today, but many may have discovered their fates through breakfast morning bulletins and online coverage about the deal as the story broke.

"It's almost becoming, unfortunately, the way people are finding out," Ms Thomas said. "We can't accept this to be the norm. We're meant to have meaningful consultation of staff."

The deal agreed was only for the inventory, e-commerce and digital assets of the businesses, which were owned by Sir Philip Green's Arcadia retail empire when it entered administration in December.

But it does not include the brands' 214 remaining shops, which will close, according to administrators from Deloitte.

Dorothy Perkins, Burton and Wallis had Leeds city centre stores in Briggate and Trinity Leeds as well as branches in the White Rose Shopping Centre, Kirkstall Shopping Park, The Springs and Seacroft Green Shopping Centre.

Around 260 jobs, mainly head office roles, will be saved as they move with the brands to Boohoo. These include jobs in design, buying and merchandising, and the businesses' digital wings.

Some other staff will be kept on during a months-long transition period, Deloitte said.

The deal mirrors those reached recently for other parts of the Arcadia company and for department store chain Debenhams, with the brands rather than the shops themselves being the focus of acquisitions by online retailers.

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 last week 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. There is still some property in the portfolio left to sell.

Ms Thomas said: "It's blow after blow after blow. A lot of the members we're speaking to feel they've been cut off, they feel isolated, they don't feel valued, they don't feel they've been treated fairly.

"We're speaking to members to try and help them with their employment needs. This actually has psychological impacts on people. When you think about how many hours we spend in employment, to just have that severed and to end so abruptly is just awful.

"Of course there's acquisitions to be had and and transitions to be made, but the staff need to be treated with dignity and respect.

"At the moment, we're trying to focus on the problem we've got as some of the employers won't speak to us. Some of the way the staff situation has been communicated has been appalling.There's no thought for how this is affecting a person's family and life, and potentially how it affects communities."

Beyond that, the focus will be on pressing the Government to create on a strategy for the future for high streets.

"There's a reason that companies don't want those shops," Ms Thomas said. "If that's something we're just going to accept, there's dire, dire consequences for towns and city centres. I don't think generally people want that."

Meanwhile, bosses at Boohoo said they were looking forward to bring the newly-acquired brands on board.

Chief executive John Lyttle said: "We are delighted to announce the acquisition of the assets associated with the online businesses of the three established brands Burton, Dorothy Perkins and Wallis.

"Acquiring these well-known brands in British fashion out of administration ensures their heritage is sustained, while our investment aims to transform them into brands that are fit for the current market environment."

Chairman Mahmud Kamani added: "This is a great acquisition for the group as we extend our market share across a broader demographic, capitalising on growth opportunities as more and more customers shop online.

"We continue to grow our portfolio of brands and customer base, strengthening our position as a leader in global fashion e-commerce."

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