Ted Baker administrators to close 11 UK stores while landlords pull plug on four more

Some 11 Ted Baker UK stores will be closed in the coming days by administrators Teneo, while a further four stores will also cease trading as a result of notice being served by landlords, prior the the administrators' appointment.

Teneo has revealed that, as part of its process, it has identified 11 sites – including those at high-profile destinations such as Liverpool ONE and Birmingham Bullring – to be closed, which will result in the loss of around 120 store roles. All 11 sites are expected to cease trading by 19 April. A further 25 head office roles are also to be cut.

In addition Teneo revealed that landlords had served notice on four stores, including Bicester Village, London - Floral Street, London - Brompton Road and Manchester Trafford, before they were appointed last month. Those four closures will lead to a further 100 job losses.

American brand house, Associated Brands Group (ABG), appointed administrators to No Ordinary Designer Label Limited, the trading business for Ted Baker's UK retail arm, last month blaming the damage done to the business by retail partner AARC.

ABG had acquired the Ted Baker business for £211 million in August 2022 leading to its delisting from the London Stock Exchange. In accordance with its usual mode of managing brands, ABG then set about outsourcing key aspects of the business, from design to retail, to a number of partners. Little known Dutch company AARC was appointed to run the UK and Europe retail and e-commerce business, but quickly ran into financial difficulty.

ABG was obliged to step in and offer financial support but it says AARC failed to provide further promised funding for the Ted Baker retail business and it was obliged to pull the plug on the partnership in February. It subsequently appointed Teneo to stabilise the business while it sought another retail partner.

Benji Dymant and Daniel Smith of Teneo Financial Advisory Limited have been managing the administration and in a statement Dymant said the closures would help improve the performance of the business.

“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," Dymant said.

The latest round of closures will leave Ted Baker with 31 stores in the UK and around 564 staff.

The full list of stores to be closed by Teneo is as follows. All of these stores were said to be loss-making and, following a review by the Joint Administrators, are "deemed to have no prospect of being returned to profitability, even with material rent reductions".

• Birmingham Bullring
• Bristol
• Bromley
• Cambridge
• Exeter
• Leeds
• Liverpool One
• London Bridge
• Milton Keynes
• Nottingham
• Oxford

Read our feature of the history of Ted Baker here: In History: Ted Baker. A timeline of a British retail icon.