Matches warns shoppers they have 5 days until it shutters website
Matches, which was entered into administration by new owner Frasers Group earlier this year, is shuttering its website in five days on 30 June.
The retailer sent an email to its contact list, warning customers they have just days to shop their closing down sale, adding an extra 20% off on top of discounted prices. Discounted pieces include designs from the retailer's extensive third-party brands including Zimmerman, Loewe and Norma Kamali.
Matches was founded 35 years ago by Tom and Ruth Chapman, a husband and wife team with impeccable taste and an obsessive attention to detail. The Chapmans extended their retail empire from Wimbledon to other well-heeled London neighbourhoods, such as Richmond upon Thames, Notting Hill, Marylebone and Mayfair. At one point they even operated stores in London for global brands such as Diane Von Furstenberg and Max Mara, such was their strategic importance.
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The retailer entered the world of e-commerce in 2007, with its stock selling out in a matter of days. A far cry from its extensive sale section currently up for grabs.
Matches was purchased by private equity house Apax in 2017 in a deal that reportedly valued it at a cool $1 billion. That's really when the trouble began. By 2023, Frasers Group, which also owns luxury super-boutique chain Flannels, acquired the dwindling business paying just £52 million, a significant discount on the price paid by Apax.
In March 2023, Frasers appointed Teneo as administrator after continuing losses and several brands terminating their relationships. By April, Frasers Group repurchased "certain intellectual property assets" of luxury retailer Matches, but not its stock, just two months after placing it into administration.
