Fashion marketplace Atterley collapses, 22 jobs lost

Online fashion marketplace Atterley has closed with immediate effect, resulting in the loss of 22 jobs.

Brian Milne and David McGinness of accountants and business advisers French Duncan have been appointed joint provisional liquidators of the Edinburgh-based business.

Milne said in a statement that the business was unable to continue trading “due to a number of market related reasons”.

He said the company was impacted by higher distribution and postage costs involved in sending out products to customers, as well as an increase in export and import costs due to Brexit.

“Staffing costs have increased over the last few years and while investors have been supporting the company for some time, they feel they are unable to continue as the company is not making sufficient sales to be profitable,” he added.

Second administration

Atterley was founded in 2012 by former Jigsaw designer Katie Starmer-Smith as a multi-brand retailer, but faced troubles further down the line and fell into administration in 2016.

The company was rescued later that year by Scottish entrepreneur Mike Welch, who relaunched the company as an online marketplace.

Last April, Atterley completed a 3 million pound funding round which it said it would use to “execute its planned growth strategy”, with a key focus on developing its footprint in the US.

Investors in the company included Terry Leahy, the former chief executive of Tesco, Graeme Bissett, the former chair of tyre company Blackcircles.com, and Alexandra Shulman, a former Vogue editor.

In a statement seen by Retail Gazette, Atterley said: “Last week, it became clear that we needed significant investment through to Q2 2023.

“However, it was not possible to put this together from existing shareholders or external investors.”

The company said “we deeply regret what has happened” and “are aware of our obligations to employees, partners and customers, and would like to thank them for what they have done since 2016, when Atterley.com took on its new form”.

“We will be working with the insolvency practitioner over the coming days to form a plan,” it said.