Lavish Alice wholesale arm debts revealed, but payments made

By

Nigel TAYLOR

Published
Mar 17, 2023

UK fashion retailer Lavish Alice's shuttered wholesale arm, Fast Fashion Collections International (FFCI) entered administration last month owing creditors almost £4 million, but payments have been made to creditors.

That’s according to documents seen by BusinessLive. FFCI was sold in a pre-pack deal to founding directors Matthew Newton and Lee Bloor last month, with payments to creditors having included £1.2 million to HMRC.

In a statement, Newton said: “Lavish Alice, the brand, is now benefiting from the discontinuation of wholesale operations, as previously announced. We have successfully satisfied all obligations, and we’re continuing to honour all outstanding D2C customer refunds. All staff have retained employment. All key suppliers have retained future business. Everything else remains academic.”

He added: “I have recently, and personally, hosted all of our international partners in recent weeks to agree a viable way forward, which significantly adjusts the reported position.

“Our direct-to-consumer model is, as reported, breaking records and we plan to announce a Hollywood A-List celebrity collaboration, imminently.”

Insolvency and restructuring advisory firm Quantuma said all parties "would benefit the outcome for the creditors of the company due to anticipated enhanced asset realisations and mitigation of certain creditor claims via a pre-packaged sale to a purchaser of the associated company's brand”.