Ted Baker to close 15 stores and cut 245 jobs

High Street fashion chain Ted Baker is to close 15 UK stores and cut 245 jobs, administrators have said.

Eleven stores will close by 19 April, administrators for the brand's owner said, leading to 120 job losses.

In addition, 25 head office roles will go, and four stores that had been set to close prior to the administration will shut shortly, affecting 100 posts.

The firm behind Ted Baker's UK shops, No Ordinary Designer Label (NODL), hired administrators last month.

When it fell into administration, Ted Baker had about 975 employees in the UK and ran 46 shops, plus an e-commerce platform and department store concessions.

US firm Authentic Brands Group owns the intellectual property to Ted Baker, with NODL the holding company for the brand in the UK.

When NODL fell into administration itself last month, Authentic Brands said the "damage done" during a tie-up with another firm was "too much to overcome".

It said NODL had "built up a significant level of arrears" through a partnership with Dutch firm AARC, which ended in January this year.

The administrators said the stores scheduled to close "have no prospect of being returned to profitability, even with material rent reductions".

Danni Hewson, head of financial analysis at investment platform AJ Bell said although the Ted Baker brand did "still chime" with consumers, "the sound is dull and for many younger shoppers their engagement is limited to fragrance and underwear".

She suggested Next could be in the running to acquire the fashion chain. "Next already has a relationship with the brand and no one would be surprised to see it subsume the company into its family, especially now the business has been slimmed down," Ms Hewson added.

Meanwhile, joint administrator Benji Dymant said: "Ted Baker is an iconic British brand with strong partners around the world.

"These store closures, whilst with a regrettable impact on valued team members, will improve the performance of the business, as Authentic continues to progress discussions with potential UK and European operating partners for the Ted Baker brand to bring the business back to health."

The 11 stores closing by 19 April are:

• Birmingham Bullring

• Bristol

• Bromley

• Cambridge

• Exeter

• Leeds

• Liverpool One

• London Bridge

• Milton Keynes

• Nottingham

• Oxford

The four stores that are set to close "in the coming weeks" are:

• Bicester

• London Brompton Road

• London Floral Street

• Manchester Trafford

Ted Baker began as a menswear brand in Glasgow in 1988, and grew to have shops across the UK and in the United States.

It also has licensing agreements in place for stores in cities in Asia and the Middle East.