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Ray Kelvin, founder and former CEO of Ted Baker, is rumoured to be considering a private equity buy-out of the company, according to the Mail on Sunday.
The move would take the retailer private under its current management, and comes after Kelvin resigned from his position as CEO and director of the fashion retailer four months ago, amid allegations of misconduct.
He took a voluntary leave of absence from his role in December 2018, after the allegations of misconduct were made against him, and since that date an internal independent committee has been in the process of investigating the claims.
The retailer also recently issued its second profit warning this year, and anticipates underlying profit before tax for the year ending 25 January 2020 to be in the range of £50m to £60m.
Shares plummeted by nearly 25% in early trading on 11 June, and the retailer said “ongoing” consumer uncertainty in a number of key markets and elevated levels of promotional activity across its global markets resulted in “extremely difficult” trading conditions during the financial year to date.
CEO Lindsay Page said at the time: “Ted Baker remains an outstanding brand and, underpinned by the strength of our flexible business model, including a relatively low number of own stores that showcase the brand, we remain confident in our long term growth prospects.
“As a team, we are proactively addressing the challenges we face as an industry. Several of our new product initiatives will commence imminently and we are confident in our collections for the coming season. We are relentlessly focused on achieving cost efficiencies as well as further cost savings throughout the business.”
