American Apparel cuts 150 jobs as all but one of its UK stores closes

US fashion chain is in administration after struggling to compete with cheaper rivals

The company made all of its clothes in the US (Getty)

Nearly 150 American Apparel staff have been made redundant before Christmas after the fashion chain closed 12 of its 13 UK stores.

Only the Camden High Street store has remained open, leaving 147 employees working at the other branches out of work.

Jim Tucker, joint administrator and restructuring partner at KPMG, said the remaining 31 members of staff based in Camden and at the firm's head office would be retained in the short term.

The Los Angeles-based firm put its UK business into administration in November after being hit by difficult trading conditions in Britain and America.

“Over the last seven weeks, we have carried out our intention to trade all of the stores on a short-term basis in order to sell the stock and realise value for the creditors,” Tucker said.

“The Camden store will remain open into January.”

American Apparel filed for US bankruptcy for the second time in a year in November and it has been winding up its businesses in Spain, Japan and Australia. Canadian T-shirt manufacturer Gildan Activewear has agreed to buy the rights to the American Apparel brand but did not want the company’s 230 global shops.

American Apparel was struggling financially as early as August 2015, when it announced it might not have enough cash to keep going.

Founder Dov Charney launched the firm in 1989, with the aim of producing fashionable clothing ethically. The company made all of its products in the US and was the country’s biggest clothes manufacturer.

In recent years it struggled to keep up with changing trends and was seen to be overpriced compared to discount rivals such as H&M.

The outlets affected and the number of redundancies are:

Brighton: 10
Bristol: 10
Glasgow: 8
Leeds: 7
London, Carnaby Street: 20
London, Covent Garden: 9
London, Curtain Road: 10
London, Kensington: 11
London, Oxford Street: 21
London, Stratford: 10
London, White City: 7
Nottingham: 8
Head office: 16