Edinburgh Woollen Mill and Austin Reed are two clothing brands that go together like champagne and creosote.
Still, diversification is presumably the name of the game and the reason why the former has bought the Austin Reed name and its stock after administrators failed to find a buyer for the failed business’s shops.
All 120 Austin Reed branches will close by the end of the month, with the loss of around 1,000 jobs.
According to research conducted for London daily newspaper the Evening Standard, just 27% of Austin Reed stores were seen as attractive to potential buyers of the chain, which probably explains why no buyer came forward.
Edinburgh Woollen Mills has taken on five Austin Reed concessions and has also bought the firm’s Country Casual brand, so it may not be the final end of the Austin Reed brand.
Also back from the dead is British Steel, which is great news for anyone making plans for Nigel.
The British Steel brand has been resurrected after completion of the sale of the steel works at Scunthorpe by India’s giant conglomerate, Tata.
Greybull Capital has bought the business and has chosen to revive the British Steel name.
According to the BBC, the commercial director of British Steel, Peter Hogg, said some customers were “really, really excited” by the revival of the brand.
Presumably these were the customers hopped up on too much Irn-Bru.
Perhaps I am being a bit harsh on Britain’s manufacturing industry, especially as the Markit/CIPS report on UKL manufacturing in May showed a small improvement.
Not so much George Osborne’s “march of the makers” as the hobbled, mazy stagger of the stunned, but at least the headline Purchasing Managers’ Index rose from April’s three-year low of 49.4 to 50.1, ahead of expectations of a reading of 49.6.
“The UK manufacturing sector has been struggling for some time so its current weakness cannot be attributed solely to activity being dampened by heightened uncertainties and concerns ahead of the EU membership referendum on 23 June,” opined Howard Archer, the much-quoted chief European and UK Economist at IHS Economics.
The fact that Archer’s job title specifically separates the UK from Europe suggests he is not just banging the drum for the “remain” group when he adds that it seems highly likely that a vote to leave the EU would have negative repercussions for manufacturers.
Among the small caps, Amur Minerals Corporation (LON:AMC) is attracting a lot of interest with its update on the nickel/copper Kun-Manie prospect in Far East Russia.
Three in-fill holes have been drilled so far at Maly Kurumkon/Flangovy (MKF), and these returned intersections 63m thick grading 0.83% nickel.
As a result, the high grade zone has increased to 2.2km total length from 1.8km and Amur now believes the MKF Inferred resource may be 'substantially understated'.