Asos and boohoo under fire for low tax contributions
Asos and boohoo paid just £48.1 million tax on £4.5 billion sales last year, according to a report by The Sunday Times.
That compares with the £160 million in business rates paid by Sir Philip Green’s Arcadia Group and Debenhams, whose brands the aforementioned online fast fashion giants are set to snap up.
boohoo bought the online business of Debenhams for £55 million last week before announcing it was also in exclusive talks to hoover up Green’s Burton, Dorothy Perkins and Wallis brands.
Asos, meanwhile, has this morning announced its £265 million acquisition of Arcadia’s Topshop, Topman and Miss Selfridge brands.
The Sunday Time reports that “Asos and boohoo swallowing high street brands but ditching their stores leaves UK Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak with a headache as jobs and business rates revenue vanish.”
Blame the system, not the companies who operate within it, we say.
The two pureplays did not respond to our request for comment.
Akeneo deal
Last week, we reported that boohoo had selected Akeneo to manage product information as part of its omnichannel strategy.
boohoo launched in 2006. It now features more than three million SKUs sold across a range of channels, including an e-commerce site, a mobile app, and a printed catalogue.
It said that it would use Akeneo’s PXM platform to increase sales, reduce time to market, and boost productivity of a team of 250 employees and over 600 suppliers by offering a dedicated solution for all product information while streamlining internal processes.
“So far, we have been managing our product information manually, which was time consuming and a drain on resources,” commented Steve Nolan, Head of Technology at boohoo.
“By implementing Akeneo PIM, we will increase efficiency and accelerate our time-to-market while also improving our product data and product experience.”
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