Ted Baker is poised to fall into administration, putting hundreds of jobs at risk, after promised investment from Dutch retail group AARC failed to materialise.

Financial restructuring and insolvency group Teneo is set to be appointed and Ted Baker’s stores will continue to trade during its administration. Although store closures and redundancies are expected, it is too early to say how many there will be. Ted Baker has 86 stores and concessions and employs around 980.

US licensing group Authentic Brands has owned the Ted Baker brand since August 2022. It is understood to blame AARC, who it appointed to run Ted Baker’s stores and website in April, for the fashion group’s collapse into administration.

A source said Ted Baker had “traded badly in the fourth quarter but would have been OK,” if AARC had delivered its investment as promised. As a result, Authentic terminated AARC’s management contract last month and tried to find a way to prevent Ted Baker from sliding into administration.

Back in 2018, Ted Baker was flying high, an independent company listed on the London Stock Exchange, whose shares were trading at £26 per share. Things soon started to go wrong, as the business was blighted by profit warnings, falling sales and losses, accounting issues, and an investigation into the conduct of its founder, Ray Kelvin.