The encyclopedia · Sales & Retail · Operational decision · 2020–2023
Scotland's 170-store fashion chain closed every shop and sold only the name
M&Co survived its first administration in 2020. The second, in December 2022, found no buyer for the stores — only for the trademark.
M&Co · AK Retail Holdings
What happened
M&Co was a Renfrewshire-based clothing and homeware retailer, previously known as Mackays, operating 170 stores across the UK high street and employing 1,910 staff. It served a value-to-mid-market customer base in towns and smaller cities. The chain entered administration for the first time in 2020 during the pandemic, emerged, and continued trading.
In December 2022, M&Co entered administration for the second time, appointing Teneo as administrator. The company failed to secure a funded, deliverable offer for its store estate. On 6 February 2023, it announced the closure of all 170 stores with the loss of approximately 1,900 jobs. Trading wound down through the spring, with the last stores closing by the end of April.
AK Retail Holdings — the group behind Yours Clothing, Long Tall Sally and BadRhino — bought the M&Co brand and intellectual property for an undisclosed sum. No physical stores were included in the deal. A 170-store high-street chain with nearly 2,000 employees was reduced to a trademark in a buyer's portfolio. The stores themselves, the leases, the staff and the local customer relationships simply ceased.
Why it happened
- The first administration in 2020 was survived but not resolved — the underlying cost base and store network were carried forward unchanged into a weaker trading environment
- No buyer could be found for the physical estate: 170 lease obligations in towns where footfall was declining made the stores a liability, not an asset
- The brand had value (AK Retail bought it) but the stores did not — the separation proves that the failure was in the physical retail model, not in the name
- High-street fashion in smaller UK towns faced structural decline: online shopping, rising business rates, and falling footfall compressed margins below viability
The lesson
A brand that can be sold but whose stores cannot be is a name, not a business — the value was in the trademark, and the 170 leases between the trademark and the customer were the problem.
Sources
- Clothing retailer M&Co to close 170 shops with loss of up to 1,900 jobs — The Guardian
- M&Co: Renfrewshire clothing chain to close all 170 stores — BBC News
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