BOURNEMOUTH faces more job losses and empty shops after an online shopping giant bought Dorothy Perkins, Wallis and Burton without taking on their stores.

Boohoo has spent £25.2million on buying the brand names, e-commerce platforms and the stock of the three famous names from administrators – but nearly 2,500 staff will lose their jobs.

Dorothy Perkins, Wallis and Burton all share two large units at Bournemouth’s Castlepoint shopping park.

A statement from Castlepoint said: “We are disappointed to hear the recent announcement about the Arcadia brands, however we would like to express our gratitude to the hardworking and dedicated team within the Castlepoint stores for providing our customers with exemplary service.

“With regard to filling the space, we are in regular discussions with retailers looking to open in the centre and hope to announce new arrivals to Castlepoint in due course.”

The three brands snapped up by Boohoo were the remaining parts of Sir Philip Green’s Arcadia group, which went into administration in December.

Around 2,450 staff were told yesterday that their jobs were being axed.

Approximately 260 jobs, mainly head office roles, will be saved as they move with the brands to Boohoo. These include jobs in design, buying and merchandising, and the businesses’ digital operations.

Announcing the deal, Boohoo chief executive John Lyttle said: “Acquiring these well-known brands in British fashion out of administration ensures their heritage is sustained, while our investment aims to transform them into brands that are fit for the current market environment.

“We have a successful track record of integrating British heritage fashion brands on to our proven multi-brand platform, and we are looking forward to bringing these brands on board.”

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Boohoo had already announced last week that it had bought Debenhams for £55m without taking on its stores. The deal has cast doubt over the future use of the huge department store site in Bournemouth’s Square.

Another online fashion retailer, Asos, revealed it had paid £265m for the Arcadia Group’s Topshop, Topman and Miss Selfridge brands, again without taking on their shops.

Bournemouth faces more empty shopping space after sale of Topshop and Topman to Asos

Topshop and Topman share a store in Old Christchurch Road, Bournemouth, while Castlepoint has both brands and Miss Selfridge.

Jeff Bray, senior lecturer in marketing and retail management at Bournemouth University, has said recent deals amount to a “fire sale” of famous brands’ assets.

“The brands do have a loyal customer following and are very well known to the customer so they can use the brands and transfer them to their IT platforms and make things more efficient,” he said.

Administrators have now sold all of Arcadia’s brands, raising around £500m to pay off creditors. There is still some property in the portfolio left to sell.