A POPULAR fashion brand owned by Mike Ashley’s Frasers Group will close for the final time in just hours.
The online store fell into administration in March this year and has been trying to clear stock over the past few months.
MatchesFashion was bought for £50million by the Frasers group but it couldn’t be saved.
The site will close at midnight tonight.
Customers received an email on Wednesday afternoon telling them the sad news and offering an extra 20 per cent off selected discounted items for anyone spending at least £200.
The online brand sells items from luxury fashion brands including Balenciaga, Gucci and Valentino.
Matches started as a single shop in Wimbledon, London, 30 years ago.
Now the brand has six locations but largely operates online.
Frasers, which also owns a raft of high street names like Sports Direct, Game and House of Fraser, snapped up Marchesfashion in December from Apax Partners.
The private equity firm bought the fashion brand from its founders Tom and Ruth Chapman in 2017 for £400million.
The brand employs just under 700 people but Frasers admitted Matches was “consistently” missing targets and making “material losses”.
In the year to the end of January 2023, the brand made a £33.5 million loss.
Retail sources have suggested Frasers had tried to secure sizable discounts from suppliers in recent weeks.
Frasers told shareholders on Friday: “Whilst Matches’ management team has tried to find a way to stabilise the business, it has become clear that too much change would be required to restructure it, and the continued funding requirements would be far in excess of amounts that the group considers to be viable.
“In light of this, Frasers has been informed that the directors of Matches have taken the decision to put the Matches group into administration.
“Frasers remains committed to the luxury market and its brand partners.”
Frasers Group has its own luxury brand, Flannels, which has more than 60 stores and a website.
Two Flannels stores closed in recent months, one in Bolton and another in Bradford.
But new locations have opened too. Frasers Group snapped up luxury chain Choice in 2022 and has since rebranded some of them as Flannels.
Frasers Group has also opened several “new concept” stores in major locations.
It recently announced it will be taking over the former John Lewis site at Queensgate Shopping Centre in Peterborough.
The concept stores hold a range of Frasers brands including a Sports Direct store, beauty halls and products from USC, Jack Wills and Game.
MIKE Ashley’s Frasers Group owns dozens of high street and online brands, here is the full list.
It comes as a major retailer with 100 branches has permanently shut one of its stores after launching a giant closing down sale.
Select pulled down the shutters on its Coventry site for the final time last Friday (June 21).
The outlet shuttered its West Orchards Shopping Centre store and is now in a Company Voluntary Arrangement, CoventryLive reported.
According to GOV.UK, CVA’s provide a way for businesses to pay off their debts over a fixed period.
The boarded up store will soon be replaced by a new clothing shop called C&S and is expected to open to the public “soon”.
“Select closed last Friday (June 21) and handed the keys back on Monday (June 24),” Senior Asset Manager Andy Talbot said.
