Cocosa, the luxury fashion site owned by Mohamed Al Fayed, is being wound down.
Al Fayed acquired the flash sale site in July 2011 for an undisclosed sum. It has had three bosses since Al Fayed took over the firm. Former Asos director Gwynn Milligan exited after just seven months in the role last March, followed by former Harrods chief technology officer David Llamas who left in January.
Former finance director Stephen Lewis returned to the business as its general manager in May.
The retailer said: “Cocosa is stable, is expressly not being placed in administration and the owners have fully committed to funding the wind-down of the business.”
In a statement, the retailer said “the costs of continuing to build the brand to market leadership were deemed too high to merit material further investment.”
It said that commitments to its 45 staff, suppliers and other stakeholders will be “honoured in full”.
A director of Cocosa said: “We thank our staff, our suppliers, including the wonderful luxury brands that we have been privileged to work with for their support, and the press, who have recognised the special niche that Cocosa has made for itself in the luxury market. We will be making available some very special offers to our customers over the next few weeks as we sell our remaining stocks, as our thanks for their loyalty to our business over the last five years.”
The site will be shut down in an “orderly way in the months ahead”. The website is holding a clearance sales with up to 90% off from tomorrow morning at 6am.
Al Fayed’s acquisition of Cocosa, which came a year after he sold Harrods to Qatar Holdings for £1.5bn, was thought to be a springboard to launch a new online retail empire.
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