New Look Management Restructure Poland Business Application For Bankruptcy

British high street clothing brand New Look came out of management reorganization, group operation general manager Dan Monaghan and commercial development director Steve Challes both left, two people altogether serve company strength 30 years.

It is reported that the two quit from the decision of the executive chairman of the group Alistair McGeorge to streamline management, the British industry magazine Retail Week website said that the British high street brand had hired Nigel Oddy as the chief operating officer of the company to carry out the traditional architecture operation, and some people became a sacrifice.

Nigel Oddy came from House of Fraser Fred department store. The latter had also been reorganized by CVA, but was eventually bought by peers after filing bankruptcy trusteeship.

Dan Monaghan and Steve Challes respectively serve the company for 15 years. The former has been responsible for logistics, supply chain and Chinese business development since 2015, and New Look has completely withdrawn from the Chinese market at the beginning of the year. Its difficult situation is largely due to China's erroneous radical expansion strategy.

At present, New Look Retail Group Ltd. French subsidiary New Look France is actively seeking to withdraw, but because of labor law, companies are looking for buyers, while French employees have started strikes at the end of last month.

According to the official website of New Look, the brand opened its first store in France in 1988, but in the past three years, its French business has gone from bad to worse. In the 2018 fiscal year, its revenue dropped 13.6%, from 67 million euros to 57 million 900 thousand euros, or 49 million 700 thousand pounds, which accounted for less than 4% of the group's revenue share.

At the end of last month, the New Look Poland market also announced bankruptcy filing, and the company had been in the Poland market for a long time.

Alistair McGeorge, the executive chairman of the group, who is responsible for restructuring and performance recovery, said in the 2 quarter's three quarter results announcement that the urgent task of New Look is to focus on accelerating the loss making plan, and the most important thing is financial restructuring, which is related to the long-term profitability of the company.

The reorganization plan can restore confidence to the company's colleagues and suppliers. The correct capital structure and deleveraging will provide the company with flexible financial capabilities to cope with the challenging market.

In January of this year, New Look announced a 1 billion pound debt restructuring plan and received a bridge loan of 80 million pounds, which will refinance the new payment in physical form of 150 million pounds.

Alistair McGeorge said the restructuring plan will focus on the profitability of the company after completion in 4-6 this year.

However, previous sources said that the restructuring plan was not conducive to the unsecured creditors, who acquired very few shares in the restructuring of debt to equity swap, and New Look was also equipped with a plan to sell the fish to death.

As of the first three quarters of fiscal year 2019, New Look declined by 2.3% compared with sales, better than the 3.7% decline in the first half, which is far more than 10.7% decline in the same period last year. New Look even recorded a comparable sales growth of 0.9% in the Look market.

In the first three quarters of 2019, New Look revenue fell 5% to 1 billion 16 million 100 thousand pounds over the same period, and 1 billion 69 million 200 thousand pounds in the same period in the 2018 fiscal year. During the reporting period, the core business was adjusted to EBITDA, which benefited from the streamlined plan, which increased 75% to 97 million 700 thousand pounds from 55 million 700 thousand pounds a year earlier. The group's overall business was revised to 78 million pounds after adjustment, compared with the 43 million 800 thousand increase in 2018 compared to the same period in 2018.

During the period, the operating profit of the company continued to operate at 38 million 500 thousand pounds, and it lost 5 million 100 thousand pounds in the same period last year.

Author: He Wei