Warehouse and Oasis move into menswear with start-up takeover

The bosses of women’s fashion chains Oasis and Warehouse have ventured into menswear for the first time, snapping up Shoreditch-based start-up The Idle Man.

Launched by a former Asos menswear buyer, The Idle Man was opened in 2014, selling big name fashion brands and having a team of in-house designers to cash in on rising demands by male shoppers.

Hash Ladha, Oasis and Warehouse group chief executive, said: “We can bring scale to The Idle Man’s proposition as well as infrastructure support, and the brand allows us to tap into the growing demand for fashionable menswear through a credible and well-established brand.”

Analysts and retail observers had been fearful that Oasis and Warehouse could be struggling, after its former stablemate Coast went bust last year and several high street fashion brands pushed through insolvencies known as CVAs to reduce rents.

But Oasis and Warehouse have continued to grow and bosses are hoping this latest push will help improve its future.

Oliver Tezcan, managing director and founder of the Idle Man, said: “This is the start of a very exciting journey for us, we will now have a platform from which we can scale up, attract new customers and develop our own brand wholesale proposition and international business.”

The company employed around 22 staff and had assets of £820,000 on August 31 2018, according to latest accounts filed at Companies House.

Accounts also revealed that the business owes Mr Tezcan £16 “interest free and repayable on demand”.

The amount paid by Oasis and Warehouse Oasis was not revealed.