Fashion retailer A|Wear has been acquired by the Irish arm of Hilco, a specialist British retail restructuring firm.

Financial details of the acquisition have not been released but in a statement A|Wear said Hilco would provide "extended working capital facilities to A|Wear to facilitate the business' financial needs".

A|Wear started trading in Ireland in the early 1960s and has 39 stores in Ireland and three in the UK.
The business, formerly owned by the Brown Thomas Group, was sold in 2007 to a management buyout team supported by Alchemy Partners, the London-based private equity firm.

The retailer posted a €6.2 million loss in the year ended January 2010, compared with pretax profits of €25.9 million in 2009. Revenues last year were €39.5 million.

Hilco recently acquired the Canadian business of music retailer HMV. It has also worked on numerous retail restructuring projects with firms such as Borders, Littlewoods, Habitat, and Woolworths.