RISKY BUSINESS
Major online fashion brand that collabs with celebs like Jac Jossa and Gemma Atkinson on the brink of administration
It comes after 27 retailers went bust in 2024 - see the full list below
A MAJOR online fashion brand known for its celebrity collaborations is reportedly on the brink of collapse.
Struggling retailer In The Style is on the brink of insolvency and set to call in administrators.
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It's understood that FTS Recovery is being lined up to act as administrator to the company, which was founded by Adam Frisby in 2013, according to .
A source added that a pre-pack insolvency potentially involving its private equity owner Baaj Capital was one possible outcome from the process.
A "pre-pack administration" is an insolvency process for a business to sell its assets before appointing administrators.
It's a way of selling a business to a third-party buyer.
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Founded in 2013 by Adam Frisby, the company differentiated itself through a pioneering influencer collaboration model.
This involves partnering with social media personalities and celebrities to create and promote exclusive clothing lines.
This strategy proved initially successful, leading to rapid growth and a £105million IPO in March 2021.
An initial public offering (IPO) is when a company sells shares to the public for the first time.
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This allows the company to raise money and become publicly traded.
Several influencers have been key to In The Style's marketing efforts. Early collaborations included reality TV star Lauren Pope from The Only Way is Essex.
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The brand's YouTube channel specifically mentions Dani Dyer, Emily Shak, and Sarah Ashcroft as "ITS babes" and featured influencers.
Other collaborations have included Jacqueline Jossa, known for her appearance on I'm a Celebrity.
Despite initial success, the company experienced declining financial performance following its IPO, ultimately leading to its sale for £1.2million to Baaj Capital in March 2023.
For now, customers can continue to shop online at inthestyle.com as normal.
Baaj Capital and FTS Recovery have been contacted for comment.
What does going into administration mean?
WHEN a company enters into administration, all control is passed to an appointed administrator.
The administrator has to leverage the company's assets and business to repay creditors any outstanding debts.
Once a company enters administration, a "moratorium" is put in place which means no legal action can be taken against it.
Administrators write to your creditors and Companies House to say they've been appointed.
They try to stop the company from being liquidated (closing down), and if it can't it pays as much of a company's debts from its remaining assets.
The administrator has eight weeks to write a statement explaining what they plan to do to move the business forward.
This must be sent to creditors, employees and Companies House and invite them to approve or amend the plans at a meeting.
A Notice of Intention is used to inform concerning parties that a company intends to enter administration.
It is a physical document which is submitted to court, usually by directors aiming to prevent a company from being liquidated.
Like with a standard administration process, a Notice of Intention stops creditors from taking out any legal action over a company while they try and rectify the business.
Several other prominent retailers are also facing challenges this year, including Poundland's parent company which is exploring strategic options with advisors.
Lakeland and The Original Factory Shop have been put up for sale in recent months.
Last month, WHSmith revealed it is looking to sell all 500 high street stores.
The retail group has been in negotiations with several prospective buyers of the high street division for several weeks.
It is hoped that a deal can be reached within three months, according to sources.
Which retailers went bust in 2024?
During 2024, 27 retailers of all sizes went bust, affecting 886 shops and 17,939 employees, according to the Centre for Retail Research.
The number of casualties is more than half the previous year’s rate of retail collapses when 61 chains failed and 971 shops were impacted.
Here, we explain some of the biggest retailers that got into trouble in 2024...
Sook
Sook was one of the first retail casualties of 2024 and was particularly depressing as it was meant to be the answer to empty high street stores.
The business operated 12 pop-up shops across the country in London, Birmingham, Southampton, Liverpool, Newcastle and Leeds and made high street space available for online brands like TikTok.
Tile Choice
Tile Choice, a Midlands-based flooring retailer with 18 shops, went into administration in January 2024.
Nine stores were snapped up by rival Tile Giant but the rest were not saved.
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The business had 116 staff and £16million turnover in the last financial year, but had struggled with a slowdown in spending.
LloydsPharmacy
LloydsPharmacy, once the UK’s second biggest community pharmacy chain, went into liquidation in late January with debts of £293million.
Why are retailers closing shops?
EMPTY shops have become an eyesore on many British high streets and are often symbolic of a town centre’s decline.
The Sun's business editor Ashley Armstrong explains why so many retailers are shutting their doors.
In many cases, retailers are shutting stores because they are no longer the money-makers they once were because of the rise of online shopping.
Falling store sales and rising staff costs have made it even more expensive for shops to stay open.
The British Retail Consortium has predicted that the Treasury's hike to employer NICs from April 2025, will cost the retail sector £2.3billion.
At the same time, the minimum wage will rise to £12.21 an hour from April, and the minimum wage for people aged 18-20 will rise to £10 an hour, an increase of £1.40.
In some cases, retailers are shutting a store and reopening a new shop at the other end of a high street to reflect how a town has changed.
The problem is that when a big shop closes, footfall falls across the local high street, which puts more shops at risk of closing.
Retail parks are increasingly popular with shoppers, who want to be able to get easy, free parking at a time when local councils have hiked parking charges in towns.
Many retailers including Next and Marks & Spencer have been shutting stores on the high street and taking bigger stores in better-performing retail parks instead.
In some cases, stores have been shut when a retailer goes bust, as in the case of Carpetright, Debenhams, Dorothy Perkins, Paperchase, Ted Baker, The Body Shop, Topshop and Wilko to name a few.
What's increasingly common is when a chain goes bust a rival retailer or private equity firm snaps up the intellectual property rights so they can own the brand and sell it online.
They may go on to open a handful of stores if there is customer demand, but there are rarely ever as many stores or in the same places.
The Centre for Retail Research (CRR) has warned that around 17,350 retail sites are expected to shut down this year.
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