Cruelty: Topshop Closes The Title Risk Of The Shanghai And Hongkong Offices Again

British retail giant Philip Green Philip Green is again facing the risk of being stripped of her title. British Labor Party chairman Ian Lavery and another party leader Vince Cable called for the deprivation of the fashion rich title.

At the end of October, the Daily Telegraph detonated Philip Green's series of problems involving sexual harassment, racial discrimination and bullying. He said he suppressed the victims through large sums of money and non-disclosure agreements (NDAs), and spent 500 thousand pounds on the defense team, which had at least 7 lawyers, so that the House of Lords of the British Parliament finally issued a restraining order to the media.

However, Labour Party member Peter Hain used his privileges in the house of Lords to expose Philip Green's name.

The member believes that this is more in the public interest.

Another Labour MP, Peter Kyle, even sent a letter to the London Metropolitan Police Office for a criminal investigation of the British tycoons.

The congressman believed that some of Philip Green's actions should be investigated. He was charged with heinous crimes. His subordinates, especially women and minority groups, were deeply afraid of what Inphilip Green was accused of.

After the British court asked Philip Green to withdraw the lawsuit against the media last week, the Daily Telegraph reported on Friday that it would further expose the details of the allegations against Philip Green, while the court temporarily declared the allegations against Philip Green and decided whether it was an offence to use NDAs.

In response, Philip Green's Arcadia Group Ltd. issued a statement supporting the court's decision. If the victim provided details, the company would not hesitate to resort to the law, and said NDAs signatories were obliged to perform confidential duties.

Arcadia Group Ltd. also stated in the statement that NDAs is legal and plays an important and legitimate role in resolving business disputes, especially in terms of employment contracts, and should be respected.

In addition to potential litigation and title risks, Philip Green's Arcadia Group Ltd. business may be more of a headache for the rich.

In the United Kingdom, the overall decline of high street retail, and ASOS PLC (ASC.L), Boohoo Group PLC (BOO.L) and Misguided, and other fashion businesses, the sales profits of Arcadia Group Ltd. continued to decline in recent years.

As the lease expires in the past two years, the group has closed 210 stores, reduced the retail sales of the British home market by 1/5, Dorothy Perkins, Evans and Wallis respectively closed 62, 41 and 26 stores, and Burton, Topshop, Topman and Miss Selfridge and other brands also reduced 80 stores.

It is reported that most stores have been renting since 90s of last century, and their tenancy is usually 25 years. Every five years, the owner reassessed the rent.

At present, Arcadia Group Ltd. still has about 570 independent stores and 500 brand counters in the local area, with 26 thousand employees.

In order to reduce the annual huge but controllable rent and labor costs, the group is likely to use the Company Voluntary Arrangement (CVA) to further reduce the scale of retail sales.

The bankruptcy reorganization process requires the support of store owners and creditors. In early 2018, Arcadia Group Ltd.'s rival New Look Retail Group Ltd. facilitated the use of CVA, which closed down nearly 60 of the total number of stores in the UK, and reduced nearly 1000 employees.

Arcadia Group Ltd. spokesman said that the group continued to carry out a dialogue with the owners of the store. With the expiration of the contract, the group had a "significant opportunity" to reassess the lease.

According to recent earnings reports, Arcadia Group Ltd. holding company Taveta Investments Ltd. operating profit in the fiscal year ended August 26, 2017 dropped 42% to 124 million 100 thousand pounds, and sales fell below 2 billion pounds, down 5.6% to 1 billion 910 million pounds per year.

The annual rental cost is 183 million pounds.

Topshop and Topman's operating profit also cut to 70 million pounds, and sales fell 5.8% to 933 million 600 thousand pounds.

Data on the holiday season showed that the group was further abandoned by consumers.

In the first 12 weeks of November 18, 2018, sales of Arcadia Group Ltd. dropped by 16.6% from a year ago to 2.5% in the first 16.6% weeks of November 18, 2018.

The comparable sale of flagship brand Topshop has been backwards by 20%, according to people familiar with the matter.

There is analysis speculation that Philip Green may finally sell the Arcadia Group Ltd. acquired in 2002.

In 2012, he took the lead in selling 25% of the group's shares to Losangeles private Holdings Company Leonard Green & Partners LP at 350 million pounds.

Earlier, there was news that in recent years, Sandro, Maje and other high growth French luxury brand income of Ruyi group (002193) and Philip Green Philip Green have held consultations, but denied by Chinese companies.

British market participants also believe that Mike, Ashley, who owns the retail assets of Sports Direct Internationa PLC (SPD.L) and the old department store House of Fraser Ltd., will also consider bidding.

In February 13th, a number of Arcadia Group Ltd. employees in Hongkong and Shanghai revealed to the no fashion Chinese network (micro signal: nofashioncn) that the British company announced in February 11th that it would close the offices of Hongkong and Shanghai.

At the end of last year, when it announced its withdrawal from the mainland market, Arcadia Group Ltd. spokesman once said that China is still a "very important market" for group development, and they are exploring other opportunities to continue their business here.

In 2013, Arcadia Group Ltd.'s Topshop entered central Queen's road. The only branch of Topshop/Topman, Hongkong, which was represented by Lian Ke Fu Si Si Group, still stands in central. However, the group's two stores opened in 2014 in Hongkong market have been completely closed.

In 2014, Arcadia Group Ltd. took the lead in the mainland fashion business, and set up an online flagship store in the light luxury fashion business to push Topshop to the mainland market.

In 2016, the two sides also deepened their cooperation with entities, and planned to open five Topshop/Topman stores in 2017 to test the water. If the market responded positively, the domestic retail sales would expand to 80 stores.

However, early in the industry, the British fashion tycoon Philip Green chose to choose Shang Shang net, the decision of the pure electricity supplier to open up the market under the line.

Tang Xiaotang, an analyst at fashion industry research and consulting firm No Agency, announced the death penalty as early as the two sides announced the 80 entity store plan.

The analysts believe that both sides are playing their own wishful thinking, the expansion of Shang pin network is false, trying to use Topshop financing as the truth, but the founder of the e-commerce brand is obviously smart and underestimated PE/VC. Investors will not have any interest in the physical retail which needs high investment, high turnover, low returns and low returns.

At the beginning of August 2018, a spokeswoman for Arcadia Group Ltd., the parent company of Topshop, confirmed that it had reached a common agreement with the mainland China franchise partner, Beijing Shang pin Bai Agel Ecommerce Ltd (Shang Pin net), and will conclude its four year cooperation by the end of the year.

According to the original plan, the two sides will open the first independent store in Topshop in Huaihai Middle Road, Shanghai in September 2018.

Author: Flower broken