Boohoo launches search for new auditor after PwC steps down

British online fashion retailer Boohoo is on the search for a new auditor after confirming PwC has stepped down.

The fashion group said PwC, which has been the company’s auditor since 2014, has already signed an unqualified opinion on the group's 2020 financial statements, but will not continue the role moving forward.

Boohoo’s audit committee has now launched a search for a replacement.

The group, which owns brands PrettyLittleThing and Nasty Gal, has been embroiled in controversy in recent months, with an independent review of the retailer’s UK supply chain finding “many failings”.

It came following an undercover investigation in July by The Sunday Times alleging poor working conditions and illegal pay at some of the Leicester factories supplying clothes to Boohoo.

The review found that from “(at the very latest) December 2019, senior Boohoo directors knew for a fact that there were very serious issues about the treatment of factory workers in Leicester” and “whilst it put in place a programme intended to remedy this, it did not move quickly enough.”

However, it concluded Boohoo “did not deliberately allow poor conditions and low pay to exist within its supply chain, it did not intentionally profit from them and its business model is not founded on exploiting workers in Leicester”.

Following the findings of the review, Boohoo set out six steps to enhance its supplier audit and compliance procedures going forward, including the bolstering of its corporate governance through the appointment of new independent directors and the launch of a Supply Chain Compliance Committee.

Photo credit: Boohoo, Facebook