Boohoo buys Burton, Dorothy Perkins and Wallis

Boohoo has agreed to pay £25.2m for the Burton, Dorothy Perkins and Wallis brands from the administration of Philip Green's Arcadia empire to strengthen its menswear offer and reach a wider customer base.

The fast fashion company will buy the brands' online assets including customer data and inventory with cash from existing resources. The deal is due to complete on 9 February and does not include the businesses' stores.

The brands have more than 2m active customers and take Boohoo's collection of fashion names to 15. Burton is an established menswear name and Dorothy Perkins and Wallis will bring extra own-label brands to sell through Boohoo's new Debenhams marketplace, the company said.

John Lyttle, Boohoo's chief executive, 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."

In the year to the end of August the brands generated £427.8m of revenue across all channels and a loss of £14.3 million as Green's lack of investment in online hammered the already struggling businesses during the Covid-19 crisis.

Boohoo has been snapping up struggling fashion businesses such as Karen Millen and Warehouse and in January it bought the rights to the Debenhams name. The Arcadia brands will add older customers and more men to its clientele, which mainly consists of young women.