The company has appointed several administrators after it failed to secure a rescue buyer, with suppliers calling for the business to pay up.
It’s been reported that the fashion corporation owes suppliers millions of dollars with Teneo Financial Advisory brought in to sell the business and adjoining assets. Approximately 140 jobs are at risk, while 80 people have already been made immediately redundant.
Speaking to The Guardian, some of the overseas suppliers have said they hadn’t been paid for months and back in December 2021 were asked for a 30 per cent discount on already agreed orders.
Their website is currently down and “can’t be reached” , however they will still continue to trade according to the administrators. They are still posting on their social media accounts that include Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram, where they have 9.2 million followers.
Creditors also applied for compulsory liquidation. One of the failings of the business was to its customers, with major supply issues affecting the time somebody would get package.
One customer commented on Missguided that she ordered her “packages two months ago” but still had not received it. Others posted on the photo #payyourworkers, while another person noted for the company to “pay your workers, pay your debts”.
Adrianne-Joy Hutt, an Australian user of Missguided said her experience of the company was contradictory to what others have experienced. Speaking on the delivery time she said, “it was pretty good” and that service was average and not abysmal describing it as “nothing outstanding, great or bad”.
She commented further that it was no great disappointment to see the fashion brand potentially go but noted “it’s interesting to see such a huge company go down”.
Teneo representative Gavin Maher said that there’s “a high level of interest from a number of strategic buyers”. According to several reports, fast fashion counterpart Boohoo was interested in acquiring the business but dropped out of negotiations.
Sports apparel retailer JD sports is apparently interested as well but no agreements have been revealed as of yet.
Missguided was founded in 2009 by Nitin Passi. In 2019, his net worth was listed at A$438 million but he stepped down as chief executive earlier this year after the corporation was rescued by Alteri investors.