Ted & Muffy have gone into administration

[Housewife2010]

It's such a shame. When they were DuoBoots I relied on them for over ten years for boots for my non-dainty legs. Their rebranding with the over-inflated prices and dropping of many of the old style was such mistake.

Their re-branding was bonkers.

Ted and Muffy indeed.

They should have stayed as duo boots, I brought at least 1 or 2 pairs a year and often a pair of shoes as well. Then they changed to Ted and MUffy and prices skyrocketed and I didn't bother. I brought one pair and the zip promptly broke, sent a new pair and the sole wore through really quickly, so I never even looked at them again whereas I had a wishlist at duo.

Why on earth did they rebrand to such a stupid name?

Yes, shame but not surprised. Prices were crazy!

The websites still up and trading

I've been kicking myself for 6 months for not buying a pair when they had an initial discount of 40% - they were never reduced again by that much (only 20% in the sale)

I'm so tempted to buy them - wonder if they will discount remaining stock?

Id be worried about ordering from them now though

Maybe someone will buy the business and take it back to being Duo? I had a pair of Duo boots I loved that lasted forever. The new prices, however, were and the quality not as good although with plenty of extra added branding and posh bags with ribbon handles.

I'm not surprised. Prices were astonishing and choice was crap, as every else said.

Perhaps they rebranded in an attempt to avoid administration.

Sad but like others not surprised after that bonkers rebranding.

Perhaps they rebranded in an attempt to avoid administration.

Highly likely, there had to be a damn good reason why they would tamper with a well known brand. Such a shame, I still have a pair of flat over the knees that have been brought out for about the last six winters.

I'm not surprised. I used to be a great Duo boots customer, their quality was excellent.

Then the quality fell through the floor.
Then they rebranded (Ted&Muffy - seriously?) and doubled their prices.

I stopped buying and wouldn't have gone back to them.

I'm sorry for the staff though.

I think the rebranding and in particular the huge increase of prices is what has led to their demise. I also think dropping all the old styles was a bad move. For years I had gone between three styles of their flat knee length boots. Once they rebranded I tried 3 pairs of their new designs but none fitted properly. Fortunately a few months back they had a sale of the old Duo Boots designs so I bought two pairs. I don't think having lots of sizes affected them as that was their USP. Their customer service was always excellent. It seems such a waste to take a firm which was doing a very good niche service and trying to move it more upmarket. It is always possible to do a more upmarket range within the brand, but they should remember who their customers are if they want to keep them.

I am so not surprised, I always bought from Duo but Ted & Muffy was just silly.

I've just seen on their Twitter, that after a difficult week they've secured investment. Let's hope they listen to their customers and return to doing what they do best.

I also think it was the rebranding and massive price increases which brought them down. There was no indication Duo was in any trouble before the rebranding. Rather, 9 months ago they took a quite deliberate decision to alienate their old Duo customers, who were ordinary women with unusual size feet/calves, and focus instead on young high fashion girls (already an over-supplied market). Hence the creepy fairytale-themed rebranding.

I know someone who was involved in the rebranding and she says the owners completely refused to take advice that the name change was a disastrous idea (naming yourselves after female genitalia just because it was the nick-name of one of your owners? Please!) and also that the owner wanted to focus on appealing instead to young women, despite the fact this wasn't their existing market, and teens don't tend to have £350 to spend on a pair of boots.

I used to buy 4 or 5 pairs of Duo boots or shoes a year, and only bought one pair of T&M, when they had their 40% discount. I am entirely unsurprised they have gone down the pan - frankly it serves them right for treating their loyal customers with such disrespect.

As well as raising their prices, they also failed to factor in that most people (like me) with fat calves also have fat feet. (Duo boots did calf fittings & width fittings). The number of rich elite athletes with exceptionally well developed calf muscles are a bit thin on the ground.

And yes, they used the name "Muffy" in their branding - that name inhabits an awkward space...maybe somewhere between Call the Midwife and pubic hair.

The original Duo shop in Bath that stocked shoes as well as boots was a delight. I lived in their nubuck sandals in the summer all through the 90s.

Their re-brand failure should be included as a "this is how not to do it..." in all retail marketing courses.

I'm always baffled when business owners fail to listen to advice from the experts they retain. What's the point in having a dog and barking yourself.

Yes agree - a brilliant case study in how to get it wrong.

I agree to some extent but feel some are being a bit harsh. Fashion retail is struggling at the moment, bhs/Austin reed just recently.. I think they possibly re branded & popped up prices to deal with the increasing drive towards permanent 'sales', both online & in the high street. We don't buy anything full priced anymore, we simply wait for a code. By increasing their prices it allowed them to promote more & compete within an increasingly fierce market place.

The new name did remind me of a kids toy shop tho..

I think it's a crying shame a good business has gone bust. I bought loads from them over the years.

There's no excuse for that name.
I also thought it was a pretty obvious mistake to stick their prices up to the level of R and B's without anything like the range and quality of that brand ( who btw never offer codes etc, though have just introduced a loyalty scheme).

Hi all,

The folks from Ted&Muffy have been in touch and asked us to post up a statement on their behalf. Here it is:

Ted&Muffy is now very much up and running after a difficult year. We undertook the rebrand from Duo with good reason and good intentions (not greed as was suggested) but as an essential step to try to make a business which was losing money profitable again in order to secure its future and the jobs of its loyal staff.

Hands up! It did not go as we hoped. We did not get the best advice and we did indeed go into administration, but we have fought back, secured investment, are out of administration and are successfully rebuilding our company, continuing to offer beautiful boots in a choice of calf fittings and shoes in a choice of foot widths.

This is a choice we are unique in offering, and a really wonderful thing for lots of women wide and narrow calved, who struggle to find products to fit.

Here at Ted&Muffy we love what we do. We believe in our products and our USP passionately. We have thousands of happy, devoted customers, and hope our collection for this year which includes Heritage styles (many of which are based on DUO customer favourites and are offered at a lower price than our seasonal styles) will show we do listen and we do care.

Interesting - if they mean what they say why not change back to the trusted brand name of Duo as a first step?