It's bad news for staff at Aquascutum's UK factory in Corby - and the British manufacturing industry full stop. The long suffering label decided last week to enter administration, the sad inevitability of which meant their plant's closure due to, "loss-making operations and a lack of funding."

"Whilst a difficult decision, it has been necessary in order to stem on-going losses for the business, and to protect the positions of the 135 remaining employees," a spokesperson for the adminstrators began. "We plan to provide appropriate assistance to all affected employees, including liaising with Jobcentre plus and helping with claims to the Redundancy Payments Service. All head office and retail operations across the UK and international high street, concession and outlet stores are operating as usual at present."

Harsh times. Will the poor, skilled, laid-off workers be resigned to branches of their local Phones4u flogging mobile phone deals? Stacking shelves in Tesco? The decline of Aquascutum is yet another tragic footnote in the story of British industry's decline, let alone the loss of a much-loved historical label.

We do wonder, does Aquascutum look at their peer label in Britishness, heritage and luxury, Burberry's success and think, "that coulda been us!!" That so seemingly identical quintessentially English brands could have had such polarised fortunes and successes boggles the mind.

Even as a double team, Graeme Fidler and Michael Herz never matched the finesse of Christopher Bailey and garnered mixed reviews at best. Aquascutum's A/W 2012 collection under the direction of Joanna Sykes shelved her pervious whimsy for a darker hard edge to much acclaim but it seems too little, too late.

All is not lost however, the company is in the midst of looking for a buyer and their fingers are crossed a suitable investor will be found soon. Here's hoping.
 
(All images Aquascutum A/W 2012)

Posted on April 21, 2012 at 2:19:56 by The Real Runway