Matchesfashion Limited - Administration

Matchesfashion Limited, a luxury clothing retailer that was acquired by Mike Ashley's Frasers Group less than three months ago, entered administration on 7 March.

Frasers explained that, since it acquired MATCHES for £52m in December, the business has consistently missed its business plan targets and continued to make material losses. As a result, it became clear to Frasers that too much change would be required to restructure the business.

Benji Dymant and Julian Heathcote of Teneo were appointed as joint administrators and said that MATCHES has experienced a sharp decline in demand over the last year as a result of well-publicised pressures on discretionary spend stemming from the high inflation and high interest macro environment.

273 employees - more than half of the company’s workforce - have reportedly been made redundant to allow MATCHES to continue to trade while sale discussions progress.

Sportsdirect.Com Retail Limited, Hsbc Bank PLC and Rbc Europe Limited have registered charges against the company.