Sir Philip Green’s Arcadia Group is reportedly planning to shut 31 of its stores in the next two weeks, leading to 714 job losses.

The move, first revealed by The Times, is believed to include the closure of 21 Outfit stores.

The group went into administration in November last year, putting around 13,000 jobs at risk.

At the time, over 9,000 of those jobs were on furlough, and no redundancies had been announced.

The forced closure of its stores as a result of COVID-19 restrictions has had a significant impact on Arcadia, which owns High Street favourites TopShop, TopMan, Dorothy Perkins and Burton.

Earlier this week it was reported that Next could be a potential frontrunner in the buyout of TopShop.

According to a report by The Sunday Times, the British clothing, footwear, and homeware retailer is bidding for Sir Philip Green’s Arcadia Group in partnership with US hedge fund Davidson Kempner.

But Next is not the only bidder, in December it was reported Primark and Authentic Brands Group were just two of 40 parties interested in bidding for parts of Green’s retail empire.

More recently it’s been reported that Authentic Brands, the New York based brand management company which has Juicy Couture in its portfolio, has been in talks about a potential joint bid for the retail empire with JD Sports.

Billionaire Mike Ashley’s Frasers Group has also indicated that it is interested in buying some of Arcadia’s most iconic brands, including TopShop.

Last year River Island was also identified as a potential bidder.

At the end of last year it was reported that Arcadia administrator Deloitte were seeking bids of up to £200 million for TopShop.

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