Koovs confirms founder purchase, company lives on

By

Sandra Halliday

Published
Dec 11, 2019

Koovs will live to fight another day. The UK-based-but-India-focused fast-fashion retailer confirmed on Wednesday that its founder has stepped in to buy the company out of administration.

It ends a troubled period for the company that has ambitions to be the ‘Asos of India’ but that was derailed by India’s demonetisation issues and other problems.

The company had been expecting a multimillion pound investment from Future Lifestyle Fashions after that firm had already pumped millions into it, but the latest £6.5 million worth of funding didn’t arrive. 

Now Lord Waheed Alli, the UK peer who has already invested millions in the company, has said that the firm “and its trading subsidiary can continue to operate and jobs, creditors and customers are protected”.

He added that he “could not stand by and allow all the hard work which has been put in to be destroyed, with the loss of jobs and the damage to our suppliers which would have followed”.

The firm’s London-listed shares had been suspended on Tuesday morning at a value of 3.2p each. They had listed at 200p five years ago.

Alli was chairman of Asos for 12 years so knows a thing or two about how to build a fast-fashion e-tailer and in the early days, following Koovs’ founding in 2012, it had looked like the future was bright for the company.

The big question is whether it can now forge ahead and build a sustainable future. We’ll have to wait and see on that one.