Arcadia: 13,000 Staff Wait To Hear Fate Following Retail Empire Collapse

Tuesday, 1 December 2020 09:08

By Charlotte Baker @Ch4rtweets

Around 13,00 retail jobs are at risk after the Arcadia Group, which owns Topshop and Burtons, collapsed into administration.

According to Sky News, Sir Philip Green's retail empire operates from 444 sites in the UK and 22 overseas as well as online - and currently has more than 9,000 staff on furlough.

Stores include Burtons, Dorothy Perkins, Evans, Miss Selfridge, Topman, Topshop and Wallis.

There are around 24 stores in Sussex, including in Chichester, Crawley, Worthing, Horsham, Brighton and Eastbourne.

It has been called the worst single corporate failure of the COVID-19 crisis to date by Sky News.

Administrators at Deloitte said they would now seek buyers for the business, whose brands ranging from Topshop and Topman to Dorothy Perkins and Burton "sit at the heart of the high street".

Arcadia chief executive Ian Grabiner said it was an "incredibly sad day" and that the company had been unable to ride out the severe impact of the coronavirus pandemic on trading.

Sky News exclusively revealed on Friday the group was on the brink of going into administration following the failure of talks over a £30m loan to help offset a coronavirus cash bleed.

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