Chinese clothing giant Shein has acquired the intellectual property and trademarks of Missguided.
The fashion company targeting young women was rescued from administration by Frasers Group in a £20 million deal last year.
Frasers, the owner of retailers including Sports Direct, Jack Wills and Evans Cycles, will retain Missguided’s employees and real estate within its fashion division.
Nitin Passi, who founded Manchester-headquartered Missguided in 2009, has entered into a joint venture named SUMWON Studios with Shein to manage and operate the brand through a licence.
Headquartered in Singapore, Shein was valued at $66 billion earlier this year. It has 150 million global users and will sell Missguided products through Missguided.com and in Shein’s physical stores.
“The joint venture we have entered ushers in a new format of partnerships for Shein, as part of our unwavering commitment to meet customer demand,” said Donald Tang, Shein’s executive chairman.
“Shein aims to reignite the Missguided brand, capitalising on its unique brand personality, and fuelling its global growth through Shein’s on-demand production model, unparalleled eCommerce expertise and global reach.”
Shein says it has reimagined the fashion industry’s traditional production model by building an agile and responsive ecosystem that leverages real-time insights for on-demand production.
This enables the reduction of production waste at the source and a much lower level of excess inventory by responding with increased production only when there is actual market demand, it says.
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