Atterley marketplace is in administration, co-CEOs step down as directors

By

Sandra Halliday

Published
Dec 23, 2022

Fashion marketplace Atterley.com has gone into administration with Brian Milne and David McGinness of French Duncan appointed a joint provisional liquidators of Atterley.com Retail Limited.

The company has ceased trading immediately and enquiries are being directed to French Duncan.

The Edinburgh-based company was a boutique retail marketplace that carried around 3,000 brands and was used by more than 250 independent boutiques.

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It’s the second time the business has fallen into administration with its previous incarnation — which at the time was backed by ex-Tesco boss Terry Leahy — doing so in January 2016, four years after its original launch.

Entrepreneur Mike Welch acquired the IP assets and relaunched it as an e-commerce platform for Indies later that year.

Companies House filings said that co-CEO Kelly Byrne had ceased to be a director of Atterley.com Holdings Limited and Atterley.com Retail Limited on 8 December and the other co-CEO Kenneth Alexander Baillie had ceased to be a director of the former on 22 December.

Atterley hasn’t commented on the specific reasons behind the failure.

It’s all a long away away from the upbeat news surrounding the company until recently. In 2020, it launched a crowdfunding campaign to support its expansion plans after seeing sales surge by over 200% during the Covid-19 lockdown. And it secured former British Vogue editor Alexandra Shulman as a strategic advisor.

At the time, Welch said: “We are growing quickly and have plans to step up boutique recruitment, engage fashion brands and grow consumer outreach.”

Last year, the business raised £3 million through a funding round backed by Maven Capital Partners, by Scottish Enterprise and existing shareholders. At the time it reported surging sales with strong repeat sales and expansion in new markets.

And this year former Boohoo Group director Kelly Byrne joined as its new chief growth officer. Welch, called it a “superstar hire” and she became co-CEO with Baillie just a few months later. Byrne said in the spring that “since joining the business… I have been hugely impressed at the growth trajectory and Atterley’s future prospects”.