Ted Baker Cuts Staff as Brand Evolution Continues
More staff cuts have hit Ted Baker.
In a statement sent to FN, Ted Baker’s parent company Authentic Brands Group confirmed that there has been a “restructure” at the British fashion brand.
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“Through the process less than 15 percent of Ted Baker employees were impacted,” Authentic stated. “Neither store nor customer facing employees were affected.”
And while the specific number of employees affected were not confirmed by Authentic, Drapers reported on Thursday that around 200 head office roles were eliminated earlier this month across departments including sourcing, finance, production and footwear.
Authentic Brands Group announced its intent to purchase Ted Baker for 211 million pounds ($255 million) last August. “We are excited to build on the brand’s global foundation through a business model focused on licensing, wholesale, retail, digital and strategic marketing partnerships,” Authentic founder, chairman and CEO Jamie Salter said in a statement at the time.
Since it acquired the British label, Authentic has made several changes to the operations of the brand, something the brand management firm typically does when it takes over a company.
In April, Authentic inked long-term strategic deals with two new operating partners, PDS Group and AARC, to run the Ted Baker brand in the U.K. and Europe.
At the same time, Authentic signed a partnership with AARC to operate Ted Baker’s 120-plus retail stores and concessions and the brand’s online business. AARC is a retail operator in 11 countries across Europe, the Middle East and Africa.
As a result of the changes, Rachel Osborne, CEO of Ted Baker, along with other senior executives, stepped down from their roles. Other senior executives like chief financial officer Marc Dench, chief people officer Peter Collyer and group commercial and business development director Helen Costello also exited the company in April.
More changes for Ted Baker came in May when Authentic announced a long-term licensing deal with The Aldo Group. Jonathan Frankel, president of Aldo Product Services at the Aldo Group, told FN in an interview at the time that the company had signed a 10-year licensing agreement with Authentic to design, produce and distribute Ted Baker footwear globally as well as handbags across the U.S. and Canada.
The first collection of footwear managed under Aldo Group will launch in spring 2024 through Ted Baker’s direct channels, online and in stores worldwide, as well as at wholesale accounts across the U.S. and Canada.
Before it was purchased by Authentic, Ted Baker brought its footwear business in-house in 2018. In the deal, the British luxury brand entered into an agreement with Pentland Brands, its footwear licensee since 2001, to acquire the issued share capital of No Ordinary Shoes Limited and No Ordinary Shoes USA LLC — the entities through which Pentland operated Ted Baker’s shoe business.
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