retail tech

Asoss distribution warehouse in Barnsley, U.K. pictured on April 22. Bloomberg News

A large fire at Asos PLC’s main warehouse over the weekend canceled in whole or in part nearly one in three of the online fashion retailer’s pending orders, Chairman Brian McBride said Tuesday.

The fire broke out late Friday at the distribution center in Barnsley, in northern England, where Asos said it held around 70% of its £159 million ($270 million) in inventory. The fire destroyed around 20% of inventory on site, or about £22 million in products, based on figures from the end of May.

Speaking to The Wall Street Journal, McBride said the company was able to recover most orders despite the fire, which damaged property in four stories of the warehouse and is being investigated by police. McBride said the police suspected arson.

The fire is the latest setback for the publicly traded company, a dominant U.K.s online fashion retailer that targets men and women in their 20s. Despite rapid growth, the company’s stock this year was hit twice when the company issued two profit warnings.

Asos stock initially dipped Monday morning but quickly recovered, ending the day up about 2%.

“We’re in a much better place than we thought we’d be on Friday night,” McBride told the Journal. “Although we’re a digital business, it shows you that you still need some physical things like backup, and recovery plans, and business continuity.”

The company has other distribution centers in the U.S. and China. More than 60% of the companys sales are overseas. In the quarter that ended May 31, the company notched up revenue of £243 million.

A company spokesman later said that 7,060 orders were initially canceled or only partially delivered, out of about 26,000 pending orders.

Earlier Tuesday, at an event sponsored by the London Business School, McBride said the company heard sympathy from customers and was also able to see how the fire affected them.

“It’s a bad time of year,” he said. “Prom dresses, for instance, a number of people had that caught up. So, you can actually feel the pain.”

McBride said the company was able to quickly communicate with customers about their orders and issued a strong statement to the stock market Monday morning that the company had a plan to recover.

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