Asos ‘s Berlin warehouse was hit by fire this morning, damaging stock worth an estimated £6.25m.
Fire broke out in its Eurohub 2 distribution centre, which is outside Berlin, at 3am this morning. The online retailer evacuated the centre and says that no team members were injured as a result.
“All relevant safety measures were executed as planned and the fire was contained to one of the four chambers in the first phase of the development,” it said in a statement today.
As a result, Asos’ contigency planning swung into operation and it started to fulfil orders via its Barnsley warehouse.
Around 2m items were stored in the affected chamber. They cost £25m in total, of which Asos estimates that 25%, worth £6.25m, could be affected by fire and water damage.
The retailer said in a statement: “None of the technology, automation or structure of the building has been affected by the fire. The clean-up process is underway and it is anticipated that the other three chambers of the site will be operational again later today. We are fully insured for loss of stock and any subsequent business interruption.”
This is the second high-profile fire to hit the online retailer. In June 2014, its Barnsley site was affected when fire broke out. That fire destroyed an estimated fifth of the stock at the warehouse.
Asos said the June 2014 fire cost it between £25m and £30m in lost sales and it missed its £1bn sales target for that year as a result.
But while that fire disrupted business for the full weekend, today the Asos websites in the UK and Germany both appeared to be operating normally.
Following this morning’s announcement, Asos’ share price dipped to 6,106.5p, but quickly recovered to 6,139.0p at the time of writing.
Asos is a Leading retailer in IRUK Top500 research.
