Mohamed Al-Fayed's flash sale site Cocosa.com is closing down over the next few months as larger competitors such as Vente-Privee begin to crowd the market.
The Al-Fayed Group, whose owner previously controlled Harrods, said it was 'conducting an orderly wind down of the business in the months ahead.'
'Cocosa is stable, is expressly not being placed in administration and the owners have fully committed to funding the wind-down of the business,' the group said in a statement.
Al-Fayed purchased Cocosa in 2011 but believed the cost of building the brand into market leadership would be too high. Al-Fayed also divested his interest in Fulham Football Club in July, where he was chairman, and sold luxury department store Harrods to Qatar Holdings in 2010.
When he sold Fulham, Al-Fayed said it was the 'right time for me to retire'. It comes as Paris-based flash sales website Vente-Privee.com, which has a turnover of £1.2 billion through operations in various European countries, sets its sights on dominating the UK market.
Most unsold UK high street clothing is currently disposed of through outlet centres, through stores like TK Maxx or in overseas markets. Like many flash sales sites, Vente-Privee uses a membership-only scheme to prevent items being easily search for off the site, which it says better protects brands.
It puts individual brands on sale for a restricted period across a small number of dates each year before shipping two weeks later.
No comments:
Post a Comment