Boohoo buys fashion brands Oasis and Warehouse for £5.25mn - here’s what it means

Popular online fashion retailer Boohoo has bought the online businesses of Oasis and Warehouse after the shops went into administration in April.

The high street fashion chains collapsed during the height of the coronavirus outbreak, and around 1,800 jobs were lost.

Initially, the stock and brand were purchased by Hilco Capital, who sold them on to Boohoo for a total of £5.25mn.

While Boohoo has taken on the online businesses, no buyer for the high street stores has been found, with coronavirus shifting most shoppers online.

The previous owner of Oasis and Warehouse had been in talks to sell the businesses before coronavirus hit, but the pandemic pushed both towards collapse.

As well as high street stores, both brands also had 437 concessions in department stores like Selfridges and Debenhams.

In recent years, Boohoo has made a habit of snapping up brands struggling in the retail market, including MissPap, Coast and Karen Millen.

Boohoo also bought the brand Nasty Gal's assets for $20m - around £15m - in 2017. It was founded by US businesswoman Sophia Amoruso who has been credited with making the term "girl boss" popular.

Boohoo's range includes beauty products, clothes and shoes, and is aimed at a young market - 16 to 24-year-olds.

Though it's difficult at this stage to predict what Boohoo will do with the new brands it has acquired, it's expected that they may try to adapt the offer for their younger customer base.

Sophie Lund-Yates, equity analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown told the BBC: "It's up to Boohoo to rejuvenate them and hope they resonate well with its traditionally younger, more fashion forward customer base.

"It's a similar move to the Karen Millen and Coast acquisitions, but while we've heard trading's going well with these additions, we haven't had any numbers to crunch, so it's hard to say what the big picture looks like."