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UK's ASOS to Sell Topshop to New Joint Venture with Heartland

FILE PHOTO: New employees wait in the lobby on their first day of work at the ASOS headquarters in London April 1, 2014. REUTERS/Suzanne Plunkett/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: New employees wait in the lobby on their first day of work at the ASOS headquarters in London April 1, 2014. REUTERS/Suzanne Plunkett/File Photo
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UK's ASOS to Sell Topshop to New Joint Venture with Heartland

FILE PHOTO: New employees wait in the lobby on their first day of work at the ASOS headquarters in London April 1, 2014. REUTERS/Suzanne Plunkett/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: New employees wait in the lobby on their first day of work at the ASOS headquarters in London April 1, 2014. REUTERS/Suzanne Plunkett/File Photo

ASOS has agreed to sell its Topshop brand to a new joint venture to be formed with the holding company of Danish fashion store billionaire Anders Holch Povlsen, the British online retailer said on Thursday.
Shares in the company rose 10% in early trading.
Analysts see the sale as a positive for ASOS, which has been struggling with losses and faced intense competition in Europe from the likes of fast-fashion firm Shein.
The group also said it expects its annual sales to be slightly below its previous forecast, but guided adjusted core profit at the top end of market expectations.
ASOS said it expects to get about 118 million pounds ($155 million) in net proceeds from the sale of Topshop and Topman brands to a new joint venture formed with Povlsen's Heartland, which would own 75% of the new entity.
It would use the money to bolster its balance sheet.
A unit of ASOS will hold the remaining 25% of the joint venture.
Heartland, through its unit Bestseller which owns fashion retail brands Jack & Jones and Vero Moda, is the top shareholder in ASOS.
ASOS bought the Topshop brand in 2021 from the administrators of Philip Green's collapsed Arcadia group, along with its Topman, Miss Selfridge and HIIT brands for 265 million pounds.
Topshop set up a joint venture with upscale US department store operator Nordstrom in 2012 to grow in the United States. Nordstrom, which held a minority interest in Topshop, will continue to hold a minority stake as part of the new JV.

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Waste Not: Taiwan Workshop Turns Trash into Sunglasses 

Arthur Huang, founder of Miniwiz, the company that runs Trash Kitchen, holds a pair of sunglasses made with plastic waste in Taipei, Taiwan, August 19, 2024. (Reuters)
Arthur Huang, founder of Miniwiz, the company that runs Trash Kitchen, holds a pair of sunglasses made with plastic waste in Taipei, Taiwan, August 19, 2024. (Reuters)
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Waste Not: Taiwan Workshop Turns Trash into Sunglasses 

Arthur Huang, founder of Miniwiz, the company that runs Trash Kitchen, holds a pair of sunglasses made with plastic waste in Taipei, Taiwan, August 19, 2024. (Reuters)
Arthur Huang, founder of Miniwiz, the company that runs Trash Kitchen, holds a pair of sunglasses made with plastic waste in Taipei, Taiwan, August 19, 2024. (Reuters)

Plastic bottle caps, food packaging, single-use utensils and scrapped toys are just some of the throw-away items that have been given a new life at a zero-waste workshop in Taipei.

Customers get hands-on experience in the recycling process, taking plastic waste brought from home, and melting and molding it into a pair of sunglasses within two hours.

"What we are trying to show in the Trash Kitchen is to let you see, feel, touch within minutes how this process can actually work without secondary pollution, and you can actually turn it into something of value directly in front of you," Arthur Huang, founder of Miniwiz, the company that runs the workshop, told Reuters.

The Taiwan company also produces tiles, bricks, hangers and other daily necessities from plastic and organic waste, using a "miniTrashpresso", a machine it developed in 2017, Huang said.

Kora Hsieh, editor-in-chief for fashion magazine Harper's Bazaar Taiwan, said the sunglasses project is a good initiative to promote sustainable fashion.

"I think environmental protection and fashion still have a long way to go. As for consumers, it is important for them to get first-hand experience, so a workshop like this is very helpful," she said.

Participants said the workshop inspired them to think twice about producing trash and pay more attention to reusable items.

"I have two children. I need to think about their future," said business owner Debbie Wu, 40.

"If you throw away trash without thinking, you kick the problem down the road. So if everyone can do their best, recycle and use less plastic, that will make a big difference," Wu said.

Taiwan produced a record 11.58 million metric tons of waste in 2023, including 6.27 million tons of recyclable trash, according to data from the Ministry of Environment.