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sadly I was right in my comments made below on the 12th of April.

perhaps with the funds in from selling the regent street store back to [I suspect] the crown estate landlord, a closing down sale in unprofitable stores funded by stock supplied from unpaid suppliers and no rent courteously of landlords it may be enough, after they have all taken there inflated fees of course, to retain the profitable stores and carry on trading until they find a buyer and another pay day. at least some staff might keep there jobs in that event.


12th April comments.
the investment by Alteri was always going to be the last stop for Austin reed which under Mr Hollingsworth tenure has had a very bumpy journey indeed.

Alteri, who also masterminded the administration of Brantano will have known at the point of investment that Austin Reed would not survive and will now take the business in to administration to more than realise there original investment. which is what they do.

Austin Reed under Mr Hollingsworth who is well regarded by many never really understood that Austin Reeds relevancy in todays market was not clear.

long gone were the days when it could use the equity in its brand to charge premium pricing, it has paid the price of having a CEO who was unable to understand that the brand needed to radically change in order to attract new customers with a clear brand message other than the assumption that as a well known brand name it can assume that this gave it the right to sell quality products at high selling prices.

it has been obvious for some considerable time that it has out priced itself in the market against more market aware competitors such as moss bros.

Austin Reed, sadly, is not a premium brand in the eyes of the consumer at large or increasingly so in the eyes of its existing customer and has in short, lost its market position some time ago.

I hope they survive but I suspect that will depend on how far Alteri are going to go in degenerating the name as they flood the market with closing down/clearance sales funded by there suppliers and landlords who will collect next to nothing.

I have no doubt Alex Brick from Moss Bros, which 5 years ago was in a similar position to Austin Reed, has been running his rule over the business but I suspect he is much more likely to take specific sites in a break up rather than buy such an ailing brand.

i hope they survive as this is not a disorganised business or a business with poor staff which just goes to prove that in these challenging times where we all operate in a constantly changing aggressive market that having the right senior management is critical to ensure that the company they manage stays consumer relevant.

best wishes to all of the excellent staff in Austin Reed.