boohoo has officially acquired the brands, intellectual property and online business of Karen Millen and Coast in a pre-pack administration deal worth £18.2 million. The deal will result in 62 immediate job cuts, while all other staff members in Karen Millen and Coast’s 1100-strong workforce are now at risk of redundancies.
Earlier today, Deloitte restructuring partners Rob Harding and Richard Hawes were appointed as joint administrators of Karen Millen and Coast to facilitate a sale. Soon after their appointment, both brands and the intellectual property associated with the online business of Karen Millen and Coast were acquired by online fashion retailer boohoo.
The fact that boohoo could cherry-pick certain parts of the business indicates the insolvency process was a pre-pack administration. It comes after boohoo’s stock market announcement this morning in which it confirmed a bid to acquire the online business of Karen Millen and Coast.
Coast had only been part of the Karen Millen family since December, when the latter acquired the former’s UK concessions portfolio and online business. While the online business is saved, Karen Millen and Coast will continue to trade through its 32 stores and 177 concessions in the UK for a short time as an administration process continues.
The international arm of Karen Millen will also continue trading in the short term. However, the administrators confirmed that the deal with boohoo would lead to 62 immediate redundancies. It is not yet clear how many of the remaining Karen Millen staff would be retained or made redundant. Karen Millen and Coast were both put up for sale in June by Icelandic bank Kaupthing, the now-former parent company.
