Manchester fashion brand Lavish Alice, a favourite of celebs including Lindsey Lohan and Elizabeth Hurley, is going online only after placing its wholesale arm into administration.
The brand, founded by Matthew Newton and Lee Bloor in 2013, was previously available in stores including Selfridge’s, ASOS and Harvey Nicholls. The company said in a statement it would move to a direct-to-consumer model as the wholesale arm of the business has faced increasing financial challenges including supply chain issues, increased freight costs, currency exchange losses, wholesale cancellations, late delivery charges and squeezed profit margins. It added that all 20 staff at the business will be unaffected by the move.
Lavish Alice’s wholesale revenues made up less than a third of its total £17m revenue in 2022.
Newton, co-founder and director of the brand, added: “The Lavish Alice journey is only just beginning. We have traded throughout 2022 and demonstrated consistent post pandemic growth. Demand for the brand and website sales are at a record high with revenue up +71 percent YoY and +76 percent pre-pandemic levels, across 100,000 transactions.
“The results are exceptional, and we’re excited to showcase our new SS23 RTW collection next week. “We took the difficult decision to prioritise our ongoing efforts and resource into the most profitable part of the business.”
Quantuma has been appointed to handle the administration of the brand’s wholesale arm.