Morphe has closed all its standalone stores across the UK as it shifts it focus to wholesale and online, Retail Gazette can reveal.
It is understood that the make-up business, which was once the must-have viral brand, shuttered all seven of its shops on Wednesday (31 July), with 73 employees made redundant effective immediately.
Morphe, which opened its first UK store in Westfield Stratford in 2018, has removed the standalone branches from its online store locator and now only shows its make-up counters in Boots and Superdrug, as well as selected Selfridges, H Beauty and Flannels stores.
A spokesperson from Forma Brands, Morphe’s parent company, told Retail Gazette: “Forma Brands has made significant progress over the last year positioning our business for growth by focusing on our flagship Morphe brand largely through our wholesale and ecommerce operations.
“During that time, our owned Morphe stores in Europe, which have consistently provided an extraordinary experience for our customers, faced disproportionately high store rent obligations.
“We have therefore made the difficult decision to close our seven UK and one Amsterdam retail locations. This move aligns with our strategy to prioritize and expand our successful wholesale and e-commerce operations, similar to our model in the U.S.”
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The continued: “We also facilitated an ownership transition of our UK wholesale and e-commerce businesses, which will operate as FORMA BRANDS UK LTD., effective immediately.
“We are immensely grateful to our incredible store teams for their dedication and passion over the years and are working to support them through this transition. Due to store closures, impacted store team members were made redundant immediately.
“In recognition of their dedication, the parent company Forma Brands LLC has provided goodwill payments to all affected employees, equivalent to an enhanced redundancy package.”
Former employees took to social media platforms TikTok and X – formerly Twitter – to criticise the brand about its lack of communication over the closures.
My friend who works at morphe has just let me know she’s been made redundant because they’re closing all UK stores with no notice. What’s happened to that store man
—
. (@tbankss_x) July 31, 2024
. (@tbankss_x) Getting wind from fellow employees that Morphe is making its UK staff redundant with zero warning, or pay.
Morphe used to be a huge giant of the makeup world, now it seems to have just whittled away.
— ★ gods favourite emo ★ (@yasminesummanx) July 31, 2024
The closures follow the brand’s decision to shutter all its stores in the US in Janaury 2023 as it shifted its focus to its wholesale and ecommerce operations.
However, the announcement was shortly followed by Morphe’s parent company Forma Brands filing for chapter 11 bankruptcy.
In March 2023, it was revealed that the company had reached an agreement with its lenders Jefferies Finance and Cerberus Capital Management to acquired it in exchange for $690m in debt relief.
Morphe, which was once valued at $2bn, has had a tumultuous few years due to reduced demand for colour cosmetics.
It grew rapidly thanks to its partnerships with make-up influencers Jeffree Star and James Charles, but parted ways with the Star over allegations of racist and offensive language, and Charles over sexual misconduct allegations.
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