Online fashion retailer Missguided calls in administrators

theguardian.com:

Missguided, the online fashion specialist, has called in administrators after failing to secure a rescue bid.

Administrators from Teneo were appointed on Monday after the company was issued with a winding-up petition by clothing suppliers who are owed millions of pounds. About 140 jobs are thought to be at risk with one source saying more than 80 people had immediately been made redundant.

Boohoo, a larger online fashion specialist, had been in talks to buy Missguided in a prepack administration deal, while JD Sports and Asos are also thought to have taken a look but a deal could not be finalised.

The administrators said Missguided would continue to trade while they seek to complete a sale of the business and assets.

Gavin Maher, a managing director at Teneo, said “the retail trading environment in the UK remains extremely challenging”, but he added that Missguided had generated “a high level of interest from a number of strategic buyers”.

The company was continuing to take orders on Monday but it was unclear whether the group’s distribution parter, GXO, was continuing to handle those orders.

Some of the online retailer’s UK and overseas suppliers told the Guardian they had not been paid for months and several said they had already taken a hit in December when they were asked for a 30% discount on orders already agreed.

One Leicester-based factory owner said he was owed more than £2m and had been forced to send his 90-plus workers home as he could not pay them. He said that without payment he may be forced to call in administrators as he had not been paid since April. “This is completely unethical,” he said. “I am absolutely disgusted.”

Another Leicester supplier said he was owed about £600,000 and he was not sure if the