Matchesfashion collapse leaves creditors short as losses soar past £50m

Matchesfashion’s collapse has left creditors such as Prada, Burberry and Gucci owed a combined £50m, with hundreds of suppliers reportedly losing out.

The companies are among 956 unsecured creditors to the fashion retailer, The Times reported, which was purchased by Frasers Group in December 2023.

Frasers went on to put Matches into administration less than three months later.

Speaking at the time, the retail empire said that Matches had “consistently missed its business plan targets and, notwithstanding support from the group, has continued to make material losses”.

The amount owed to unsecured creditors grew 62% from the £31m initially forecast in the directors’ statement of affairs report, documents filed at Companies House found.

Its administrator Teneo said this was due to claims being submitted at “significantly higher” values than in the statement of affairs, and that there were roughly 200 creditor claims which were not included in the report.

Teneo said £13.8m in total had been settled at the date of the report, where valid retention of title claims existed. However, it said the remaining creditors, including landlords and customers, were unlikely to collectively receive over £600,000, or less than 2p in the pound.

Although the most recent document did not break down how much was owed to creditors, in prior reports Gucci was owed £553,338, Burberry £467,525, Bottega Veneta £326,564, and Prada was out of pocket £281,069.

Other British retailers that are likely to be owed money include Samantha Cameron’s Cefinn, Paul Smith, Anya Hindmarch and Joseph.

It comes after Frasers Group bought Matches IP assets out of administration in April 2024, under a deal that did not include its £80m of stock or its 250 remaining employees.

The group said that it had reached an agreement with administrators at Teneo to acquire “certain intellectual property assets only” for an undisclosed sum.

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