Industry | Fashion retail |
---|---|
Founded | 2003 |
Defunct | 2009 |
Fate | Administration |
Successor | Aurora Fashions |
Headquarters | Iceland UK |
Number of locations | 1700+ |
Area served | International |
Products | Clothes |
Mosaic Fashions hf was a holding company listed on the Icelandic stock exchange that owned several fashion brands. At its peak it had over 2,000 stores worldwide, as concessions, franchises and joint venture stores.
The Oasis stores started in 1991, and in 1995 Oasis Stores Plc. was floated on the London Stock Exchange. In April 1998, Oasis purchased the Coast stores. In September 2001, the management team of Oasis Stores Plc acquired the company via Sierra Acquisitions Ltd., supported by PPM Ventures. Sierra Acquisitions Ltd. later became a part of Sierra Holdings Ltd.
On 16 April 2020, it was announced that both Oasis and Warehouse had fallen into administration. On 30 April 2020, the administrators announced that they had failed to find a buyer for both stores with the loss of 1,800 jobs. [1] The brand was later bought by Boohoo.com. [2]
In November 2003, Oasis and Coast were acquired from PPM Ventures by a secondary management buyout, supported by Baugur Group hf. and an investor group led by Kaupthing Bank hf. Noel Ltd. was established as the takeover vehicle, which in June 2004 was renamed Mosaic Fashions, when it acquired the Karen Millen and Whistles brands. [3] The company was backed by a series of investors, including Jón Ásgeir Jóhannesson, Don McCarthy and Kevin Stanford.
In 2005, Mosaic Fashions hf. was listed on the OMX Exchanges in Iceland. In 2006, Mosaic Fashions hf. acquired Rubicon Retail, which included the Warehouse, Principles and Shoe Studio brands. [4] In October 2007, Mosaic Fashions was de-listed from the Nordic Stock Exchange. In December 2007, the eveningwear brand Anoushka G was acquired. In January 2008, its interest in Whistles was disposed of.
Mosaic Fashion entered administration on 2 March 2009. [5]
Most of the businesses were immediately sold on to Aurora Fashions, [6] a new company jointly owned by Icelandic bank Kaupthing - a major Mosaic creditor - and Mosaic's former management. [7] The deal saw Aurora take on the majority of Mosaic's ongoing retail stores including Coast, Warehouse and Oasis. [8] Principles was not included in this deal, and was subsequently purchased separately by department store operator Debenhams. [9]
The group traded under the following brand names:
Iceland Foods Limited, trading as Iceland, is a British supermarket chain headquartered in Deeside, Wales. It mainly sells frozen foods, including prepared meals and vegetables, alongside non-frozen grocery items such as produce, meat, dairy and dry goods. The company also operates a chain of shops called The Food Warehouse.
Debenhams plc was a British department store chain operating in the United Kingdom, Denmark and the Republic of Ireland, and is still operating as a franchise in seven Middle East countries. It was founded in 1778 as a single store in London and grew to 178 locations across those countries, also owning the Danish department store chain Magasin du Nord. In its final years, its headquarters were within the premises of its flagship store in Oxford Street, London. The range of goods sold included middle-to-high-end clothing, beauty, household items, and furniture.
Kaupthing Bank was a major international Icelandic bank, headquartered in Reykjavík, Iceland. It was taken over by the Icelandic government during the 2008–2011 Icelandic financial crisis and the domestic Icelandic-based operations were spun into a new bank New Kaupthing, which was subsequently renamed Arion Banki. All the non-Icelandic assets and debts remained with the now defunct Kaupthing Bank. Prior to its collapse, it also allegedly loaned money to various parties with the purpose of buying Kaupthing shares.
Baugur Group was an Icelandic investment company. The group began as a supermarket and general retail company in Iceland, before diversifying to own a number of businesses at its peak, primarily in the United Kingdom.
Arcadia Group Ltd was a British multinational retailing company headquartered in London, England. It was best known for being the previous parent company of British Home Stores (BHS), Burton, Dorothy Perkins, Debenhams, Evans, Miss Selfridge, Topman, Topshop, Wallis and Warehouse. At its peak, the group had more than 2,500 outlets in the UK and concessions in UK department stores and several hundred franchises operated internationally.
Burton is a British online clothing retailer, former high street retailer and clothing manufacturer, specialising in men's clothing and footwear. The company was a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index, but became a trading name of Arcadia Group Brands Ltd, part of the Arcadia Group. Sir Philip Green acquired the Arcadia Group in 2002, and it became the sole owner of Burton. In 2021, Boohoo.com acquired the brand after Arcadia went into administration.
Hagar hf. is an Icelandic holding company based in Kópavogur that owns a number of retail and wholesale companies in Iceland, Sweden, and Denmark. Each of Hagar's companies are run individually. As of 2014, Hagar's subsidiaries had a combined 48% market share in the Icelandic food retail market. As of October 2016, the company operated 57 stores, including the Hagkaup and Bónus chains, and had approximately 2,200 employees. Hagar hf is listed on the Iceland Stock Exchange as HAGA.
Frasers Group plc is a British retail, sport and intellectual property group, named after its ownership of the department store chain House of Fraser.
Bank of Åland Plc is a Finnish commercial bank and banking group with over 700 employees and operations in Åland, Finland and Sweden. The bank was founded in 1919 and was listed on the stock exchange in 1942. Its president and CEO is Peter Wiklöf.
Karen Millen is a brand used by online women's clothing retailer Boohoo plc. The brand specialises in tailoring, coats and evening wear. It was acquired in 2019 following the collapse of Karen Millen Fashions Ltd, a company that operated a chain of clothing stores in many countries worldwide. The company was originally founded in 1981 by British entrepreneur fashion designer Karen Millen. She sold it in 2004 and was not subsequently involved in businesses bearing her name.
Sears plc was a large British-based conglomerate. The company was listed on the London Stock Exchange and was once a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index. It was acquired by Philip Green in 1999.
Principles was a UK-based fashion retailer founded in 1984.
Rubicon Retail was a British retail group that traded between 2002 and 2006.
The Icelandic "outvasion" was the period in the economic history of Iceland between 2000 and the onset of its financial crisis in October 2008. With the privatisation of the Icelandic banks being advantageous for investors, there was a large supply of cheap loan capital on the international market. A clause in the agreement with the European Economic Area stipulated the free flow of capital to and from Iceland.
Aurora Fashions was a holding company of several retail fashion brands, formed in 2009 to purchase a number of businesses from the collapsed Mosaic Fashions. The company operated over 1,250 stores in 38 countries, including franchises, under the Oasis, Warehouse and Coast brands.
Magasin is a Danish chain of department stores. It has seven department stores with its flagship store located on Kongens Nytorv in Copenhagen. The company is a subsidiary of the German department store retailer Peek & Cloppenburg Düsseldorf, Magasin du Nord has been a founder and remained a member of the International Association of Department Stores since 1928.
Jón Ásgeir Jóhannesson is an Icelandic businessman and former CEO of Baugur Group.
Warehouse was a British clothing retail chain, founded in 1976.
Coast is a British women's clothing retail chain, founded in 1996.
Boohoo Group plc is a British online fast-fashion retailer, aimed at 16- to 30-year-olds. The business was founded in 2006 and had sales of £856.9 million in 2019.