Clothing brands Oasis and Warehouse have been bought by Hilco but the deal excludes their stores. 

 Sofie Willmott, Lead Analyst at GlobalData, a leading data and analytics company, offers her view on this news;

 “Like the Gordon Brothers’ rescue deal for Laura Ashley, investment firm Hilco’s purchase of the Oasis and Warehouse brands excludes their store portfolios, bringing yet more bad news for retail landlords that have already been hard-hit by the COVID-19 pandemic. With the online channel accounting for almost 30% of UK clothing & footwear spend in 2019 and the shift to digital being accelerated in 2020 due to non-essential store closures, companies buying up retailers are not interested in their physical estate.

 “Oasis and Warehouse operated around 90 standalone branches – a far smaller estate than many of their competitors – but were present in over 400 department stores which will leave struggling retailers like Debenhams and House of Fraser with gaping holes in their womenswear stock when they are able to reopen. With more clothing specialists at risk of collapse over the next few months as demand for fashion items remains depressed, department store retailers are at risk of losing more of their third-party brands.”