Fashion designer Victoria Beckham is among the creditors of luxury department store Harvey Nichols who are expected to lose most of the money they are owed. Companies House filings reveal that Beckham was owed £353,349 by the chain when it fell into administration.
Harvey Nichols, which owed a total of £270.5m to its unsecured creditors, has since been acquired by retail giant Frasers Group for £43.3m. However, administrators have indicated that creditors can anticipate recovering no more than 15 per cent of their outstanding debts.
Other high-end suppliers facing significant losses include Canada Goose, owed £565,267; Max Mara, owed £520,000; Chloé, owed £516,329; and Coach, owed £402,285. Administrators FTI noted that the department store had experienced deteriorating trading performance due to challenging market conditions, including impacts from Covid-19 lockdowns, increased e-commerce competition, and a decline in high street footfall.
The store also saw a reduction in visits from wealthy Asian and Middle Eastern tourists following the scrapping of London's VAT-free shopping regime in January 2021. This comes as Victoria Beckham's own fashion label recently reported its first-ever profit, with revenue increasing by 15 per cent to £130m and a pre-tax profit of £3.4m in the year to December.