Analysis: Has Ted Baker unravelled beyond repair?
“Ted just doesn’t feel like Ted anymore.” It’s a statement that’s as short as it is revealing about Ted Baker’s alarming fall from grace.
It is not difficult to see why one source close to the business comes to that conclusion. Barely 11 months ago, Ted Baker was shrugging off the impact of a heavily promotional retail environment and trumpeting impressive sales growth.
In its Christmas trading update in January, Ted Baker hailed a 12.2% jump in retail revenues and an 18.7% spike in ecommerce sales.
Lindsay Page, then the acting chief executive, said the figures reflected “the strength of the brand and the quality of our collections”. Its share price reflected that too, hitting 2,210p to give the business a market cap just shy of £1bn.
What a difference a year makes. Three profit warnings and string of high profile exits later have seen Ted Baker slump from star of the City catwalk to a business in danger of unravelling at the seams.
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