A LEADING Carlisle councillor believes there is still reason to be hopeful as it was revealed more than 2,400 jobs are to be axed across the UK as three high street brands are sold.
Administrators for the Arcadia Group confirmed yesterday the brands, intellectual property and stock had been sold to online retailer Boohoo.
Under the terms of the sale, Boohoo will acquire the brands, intellectual property and inventory of the three brands for £25.2m and will also take on certain liabilities for forward committed stock orders.
The £25m deal excludes the Dorothy Perkins, Burton and Wallis store network which, comprised a total of 11 standalone stores across Cumbria, as well as two each that were part of Debenhams branches. Burton and Dorothy Perkins have four standalone stores each across the county, with Wallis having three.
When approached by the News & Star about the number of jobs that will be lost, a spokeswoman for Burton said: “The administrators have not provided details split out by brand, but all remaining Burton stores will unfortunately close.” Dorothy Perkins and Wallis did not respond.
It comes as a similar deal was agreed for Boohoo to buy Debenhams last month, with stores to reopen to sell remaining stock before closing for good.
Gareth Ellis, deputy leader of Carlisle City Council, believes there is still reason to be hopeful. He said, “hundreds of millions of pounds of government money is coming to Carlisle over then next couple of years” through the Carlisle railway station and Citadel projects involving the University of Cumbria and the Town’s Fund.
“This is devastating for those losing their jobs, and another gap in the national and our local high street,” he said.
“There are things that need to be done at a government level. High street retail struggles to cope with online delivery in the best of times, never mind the last twelve months.
“Our city centre does have a future but it might be very different. A move from almost entirely retail, to a centre with more residential accommodation, with a mixture of restaurants, entertainment and retail.
“We mustn’t be over pessimistic. Many fundamentals of our city economy are strong. We can grow our economy bring more jobs to the city and come out of this a stronger place.”