Fashion retailer Kookai to exit UK

Fashion retailer Kookai is winding down the UK arm of its business after initiating a solvent liquidation of its UK assets, a move instructed by its French owner Vivarte Group, which is looking to stem the losses from its international subsidiaries.

According to reports, Asher Miller, partner and insolvency practitioner at David Rubin & Partners LLP has been appointed to handle the members’ voluntary liquidation of Kookai UK Limited.

“Kookai is currently restructuring and we were instructed by the French shareholders to wind down the UK operation,” Miller told Insolvency News. “The company is retrenching back to France and withdrawing from the UK. The final payments to creditors have been made.

Kookai initiates voluntary liquidation

Kookai has been struggling to make a profit from its UK arm for a number of years and in its last set of published results for the full year to August 27, 2011, the retailer reported that sales dropped 24.6 percent, while pre-tax losses stood at 2.5 million pounds.

In recent years the womenswear retailer has decreased the number of its UK concessions, Kookai currently only operates four concessions – two within John Lewis, Selfridges Manchester and in De Gruchy in Jersey, as well as a transactional website. However, globally the company still has a sizeable presence, with more than 350 stores worldwide.

As well as being owned by the French-based Vivarte Group, the UK arm of Kookai was also minority owned by investment firm Amery Capital. However in January, Amery Capital’s main investors Michael and Maurice Bennett resigned as directors of the retailer, following the exit of Kookai UK’s managing director Matthieu Dietsch, who left the fashion retailer at the end of October last year.

In addition to owning Kookai, Vivarte Group owns numerous fashion brands including NafNaf, Minelli and Schuh Paradies.