UK multinational retailer Marks & Spencer, commonly referred to as M&S, has bought the luxury fashion brand Jaeger, which fell into administration last November.
However, in perhaps a sign of the future, M&S has only bought the brand, not the 63 stores that Jaeger had in the UK.
M&S said it is in the final stages of the purchase of product and supporting marketing assets from the administrators and expected to fully complete the deal later this month, Reuters reported.
No purchase figures were disclosed. Before going into administration, Jaeger was part of Philip Day’s stricken Edinburgh Woollen Mill Group. Jaeger’s business also included the formalwear chains Jacques Vert and Austin Reed. The brands were not included in the deal, and will continue to be owned by Day’s Dubai-based holding intellectual property company, which did not enter administration.
M&S, which has more than 1400 stores in 57 countries and over 50 international websites, announced in May last year that it planned to stock other complementary brands, in addition to its own.
It began selling products online from the Early Learning Centre, which was bought in March 2019 by The Entertainer, and two UK fashion designers, Nobody’s Child and Ghost London.
“We have set our plans to sell complementary third party brands as part of our Never the Same Again program to accelerate our transformation and turbocharge online growth,” said Richard Price, M&S Managing Director of Clothing & Home.
“In line with this, we have bought the Jaeger brand and are in the final stages of agreeing the purchase of product and supporting marketing assets from the administrators of Jaeger Retail Limited. We expect to fully complete later this month.”
In a call with journalists last week, M&S CEO Steve Rowe said the retailer wanted to partner with other brands, largely for its online business.
“We have no intention of turning into a department store,” he said.
Three days ago, M&S reported that despite “robust” trading over the Christmas period, UK revenue for the quarter was £2.52 billion (US$3.4 billion), 8.2 per cent lower than last year. International revenue was cut by 10.4 per cent.