American Apparel in the UK has today gone into administration.
The multichannel retailer, which trades online and from 13 stores in the UK, has called in administrators from KPMG . The UK online store was this afternoon offline for maintenance but the administrators say that the stores, of which eight are in London, are continuing to trade and that no redundancies have been made.
The failure of two American Apparel UK companies, American Apparel (UK) Ltd and American Apparel (Carnaby) Ltd comes as the US company is being sold. The UK operation, along with some European parts of the business, are not part of the sale.
In a statement, Jim Tucker, joint administrator and restructuring partner at KPMG, said: “The American Apparel group has been experiencing strong retail headwinds, which has culminated in the US parent deciding to stop inventory shipments to the UK. The UK business has experienced similar trading difficulties, resulting in the appointment of administrators.
“The 13 UK stores are well stocked and will continue to trade as usual in the lead up to the peak Christmas trading period. Whilst the UK business is not part of the US sale, a number of the UK stores are in prime high street locations, and we will also aim to sell individual stores following the Christmas trading peak.”
American Apparel is a Top350 company in IRUK Top500 research.
