As 15 stores set to close, how the mid-market brand once ruled the 90s high street but became derailed by founder Ray Kelvin ‘hugging culture’ rumours

Ted Baker has this week become the latest British brand to feel the sucker punch of changing shopping habits, with the company set to shut 15 stores across the UK and cut around 245 jobs after plunging into administration.

The company behind the fashion brand’s UK shops hired administrators from Teneo last month. 

The retail giant currently has 86 locations in the UK, which include 29 standalone branches and 35 concessions. Twenty-five shops are located in John Lewis department stores, while seven are in airport stores and eight are in Ted Baker outlet stores.

Ted Baker – which first opened in Glasgow in 1988 – has picked up impressive celebrity endorsements over the years including Holly Willoughby, Amal Clooney, Amanda Holden, Emma Stone and Myleene Klass.

At the height of its fashion powers in the nineties, the brand, founded in 1988 by Ray Kelvin – who famously quit in 2019 after being accused of enforcing a ‘hugging’ culture at the company, had firmly mastered the art of upmarket mainstream. 

Its smart, boutique-style shops, often in pretty Victorian streets rather than huge malls, attracted shoppers who wanted mid-market stylish attire that was a cut above the likes of TopShop, Oasis and River Island. 

An authentic homegrown backstory appealed to shoppers too; North Londoner Kelvin had started working in his uncle’s Enfield menswear shop aged 11 and gone on to found the Ted Baker brand after success with a men’s shirts shop in Glasgow – he conjuring up world domination while on a fishing trip. 

Who is Ted Baker? He doesn’t exist, with one theory suggesting Kelvin didn’t name the brand after himself in case it went bust. But if he did, said Kelvin, he’d be an ‘intrepid aviator, an all-round sportsman and the consort of princesses and Hollywood beauties’. 

The range of shirts in the Glasgow store – in every colour of the rainbow – became a huge hit in the ‘acid house’ era of the 1990s, as clubbers wanted to stand out under the strobe lights. 

More shops quickly followed – in Manchester’s King Street and Nottingham Exchange Arcade –  and as the 90s rolled on, the brand quickly branched out into other departments, eventually selling everything from womenswear, childrenswear, shoes, fragrance and watches to glasses, wedding attire, bedding and lingerie. 

 The womenswear became known for soft florals, and became a go-to for summer dresses, but shoppers could happily pick up a sharp suit for the office too – and a pair of heels for less than £100. 

By 1998, Ted Baker had opened its first store in the US, with a shop in New York – and carved out a partnership with American department store Nordstrom. There are now 500 stores and concessions globally. 

Across the UK, there are currently still nearly 90 outlets, including Heathrow, Gatwick and Luton airports and in dozens of branches of John Lewis.  

The brand has always employed the power of celebrity too, with early ambassadors including football, rugby and music stars. 

In 2016, Guy Ritchie created a ‘shoppable film’ to promote the 2016 autumn/winter collection – which carried the strapline ‘Spy it. Click it. Buy it’.

In more recent years, Holly Willoughby, Amal Clooney, Amanda Holden, Emma Stone and Myleene Klass have all worn the brand.

The Princess of Wales famously wore a navy Ted Baker trench during the then Duke and Duchess of Cambridge’s Canada tour in July 2011. 

A fast evolving online shopping scene – with brands such as PrettyLittleThing, Boohoo and ASOS suddenly dominating online sales – and a media spotlight on Kelvin’s apparently intimate working practices saw the brand begin to come unstitched around five years ago. 

The entrepreneur, who lives in Hampstead with his second wife Clare and their daughter, Ava, and also has two sons – Ben and Josh – with first wife Georgia Slowe, was accused of harassing employees in the workplace.  

In 2018, Kelvin took a leave of absence when the company was forced to launch an independent investigation into his alleged behaviour following a petition from staff.

He was accused of stroking people’s necks and making sexual innuendos and promptly stepped down in March 2019, saying ‘It is the right thing to step away’.

Kelvin said at the time: ‘Difficult though this decision is given that Ted Baker has been my life and soul for over 30 years, I’ve decided that the right thing to do is to step away from Ted and allow the business to focus on being the outstanding brand it is so it can face 2019 with fresh energy and renewed spirit.’ 

However, by December that year, bosses of the firm quit after profits plunged to less than £10million after its ‘worst ever year of trading’.

The group said at the time that chief executive Lindsay Page – who took over from founder Ray Kelvin after he quit – had been replaced by an interim director.

The resignations were announced as Ted scrapped its shareholder dividend payout and said it is now expecting annual pre-tax profits of between £5 million and £10 million after worse-than-expected trading in November and over Black Friday. This compared with pre-tax profits of £50.9 million the previous year.

In 2024, despite the company’s best efforts to renew its spirit and entice shoppers back to its 86 stores, it finds itself facing closure. 

The firm No Ordinary Designer Label, which is owned by the Authentic Brands Group (ABG) and trades as Ted Baker has filed a notice of intention to appoint administrators Teneo Financial Advisory.

NODL has around 975 employees and runs more than 80 shops and concessions in the UK. In its statement Authentic did not reveal any details of cuts to jobs or shop numbers. 

Going into administration is likely to result in closures of stores and could lead to as many as 1,000 job losses.