Ted Baker – a fixture on UK Excessive Streets because the late Eighties – is the newest casualty within the battle going through brick-and-mortar retailers.
Identified for its quirky promoting and signature floral prints, the model has lengthy been synonymous with British vogue and heritage.
However lately, it has confronted enormous challenges similar to fierce competitors, the shift to on-line buying and the departure of its founder Ray Kelvin.
It’s now set to shut its remaining shops this week, placing greater than 500 jobs in danger within the UK.
“That is an iconic model with a signature design,” Diane Wehrle, retail skilled and chief govt at Rendle Intelligence and Insights advised the BBC.
Throughout the model’s 36-year historical past, it has been compelled to compete with different, higher-end, Excessive Avenue vogue outfits similar to Reiss, Whistles, Mango and Massimo Dutti, “all of which have eaten away at its market share”, she famous.
It has needed to fend off competitors whereas going through enormous overheads with some 1,000 workers throughout 46 shops, concessions and the web enterprise, she mentioned.
However its deadly error? A failure to evolve with shopper tastes.