British tycoon Philip Green’s Arcadia fashion group has collapsed into administration, putting over 13,000 jobs at risk and becoming the country’s biggest corporate casualty of the COVID-19 pandemic so far, administrator Deloitte said yesterday, Reuters reported. Arcadia owns the Topshop, Topman, Dorothy Perkins, Wallis, Miss Selfridge, Evans, Burton and Outfit brands, trading from 444 leased sites in the UK and 22 overseas. Deloitte said that the stores will remain open, or reopen when permitted under the government’s COVID-19 restrictions, and no redundancies were being immediately announced. “We will now work with the existing management team and broader stakeholders to assess all options available for the future of the group’s businesses,” said Matt Smith, joint administrator at Deloitte. He said Deloitte would rapidly seek expressions of interest and expected to identify one or more buyers to ensure the future of the businesses.
