Sir Philip Green to close Miss Selfridge’s flagship Oxford Street store amid Arcadia restructuring

The troubles for Sir Philip Green’s beleaguered retail empire Arcadia showed no sign of abating this evening as it emerged the mogul is to close the flagship central London branch of Miss Selfridge this summer.

Arcadia hopes its creditors will next week approve a company voluntary arrangement (CVA), an insolvency procedure which enables the closure of retail outlets and cutting rents.

Green’s plan to shut Miss Selfridge’s flagship Oxford Street site follows the announced closure of 23 Arcadia-owned stores as part of the CVA. This includes six other Miss Selfridge stores.

The Miss Selfridge outlet will move into a basement concession beneath its neighbouring Topship, which is also owned by Arcadia. It's current premises will be let out to another brand. The decision means many of the approximately 50 staff who work at the outlet face uncertainty over their future. 

Arcadia has said it will make efforts to redeploy the staff either at the Topshop outlet or elsewhere in the capital. It remains unclear as to whether any jobs will be lost.

Arcadia has already shut around 200 stores over the past three years, and now has just 560 stores open throughout the UK and Ireland.

Under the proposed restructuring of the firm announced last week, the company is set to reduce its contribution to the pension fund to £25m a year from £50m over the next three years, as well as shut 23 more stores.

Green, who lost his billionaire status earlier this year falling from joint 66th to 156th on the Sunday Times rich list, has pledged to inject £100m into the fund to cover the shortfall.