Mike Ashley doubles down on intention to helm Boohoo

After Boohoo turned down his offer to take over the firm’s management, Mike Ashley, the founder of Frasers Group, has doubled down on his mission to helm the fast fashion giant.

In a letter to The Sunday Times, the businessman underlined the urgency to which someone must fill the currently vacant chief executive position at Boohoo after the company suffered “serious mismanagement”.

Ashley said: “I’m all in. I’m ready to dedicate my time and effort – including basing myself in Manchester as much as I deem required – to turn Boohoo around and deliver value for all shareholders.”

He added that he believed the resignation of Boohoo’s CEO, John Lyttle, earlier in October, coupled with the revelation of a “disastrous” refinancing, was his “last straw”.

His statement continued: “The focus here needs to be on urgent and decisive action to sort out the mess that Boohoo is in after suffering serious mismanagement.”

Ashley’s strong words come after Boohoo turned down Frasers’ proposal of taking over the group and placing Ashley at its helm.

Next to stating that Boohoo had ruled Ashley out as a potential candidate, it noted that the entrepreneur was a 73 percent shareholder in Frasers, which in turn owns a 23.6 percent stake in Asos, a market competitor to Boohoo–”important facts that need to be taken into account”, Boohoo said.