Asos loses around £22m of stock in warehouse fire

Online retailer Asos has confirmed it has lost 20 per cent of its stock worth £22million at the fire at its Barnsley warehouse.

In a statement Asos said: "None of the technology, automation or structure of the building has been affected by the fire.

"Our initial estimate is that approximately 20% of the total stock at the site has been compromised by fire damage and the sprinkler systems."

The company resumed taking orders at 2am this morning but the disruption has led to its shares falling by three per cent.

Online fashion retailer Asos will restart taking orders today following a fire on Friday at its Barnsley distribution centre that caused damage to a large amount of stock.

About 70% of the company's stock was held at the Barnsley site, with the fire damaging roughly one fifth of that stock.

The firm added that it was "fully insured for loss of stock and business interruption" arising from the incident, which the police are investigating as possibly being deliberate.

Read: Fire service: Asos warehouse blaze 'probably deliberate'

South Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Group Manager Andy Hayter told ITV News Calendar the Asos warehouse blaze near Barnsley was probably caused deliberately, though investigations are still ongoing.

More: Asos warehouse fire 'being treated as arson'

A Barnsley resident has tweeted images of the Asos warehouse fire that has temporarily closed the internet fashion giant.

South Yorkshire Fire and Rescue said they believe the blaze was started deliberately.

The fashion store said that it "hopes to be back to normal in a day or so" following the blaze in the empty unit.

More: Warehouse fire takes Asos fashion shop offline

Asos tweeted:

More: Asos warehouse fire 'could cause supply chain chaos'

A fashion retail expert told ITV News that a fire at the large Asos distribution centre near Barnsley could cause "chaos" further down the supply chain.

As well as existing stock, taking their website down will mean no further sales are made.

"Not selling anything thing means there will be a backlog of items waiting to come into the warehouse," said the insider, who works for a company that supplies Asos.

"This can cause chaos with smaller suppliers who don’t necessarily have the space to hold onto orders.

"Smaller factories will be manufacturing Autumn/Winter collections now and it may be prohibitively expensive to rush certain summer collections back into production."

A serious fire at an Asos warehouse near Barnsley was started deliberately, South Yorkshire Fire and Rescue believe.

Asos have issued the following statement regarding the huge fire which has damaged their Barnsley warehouse leading to the company temporarily taking their internet shop offline.

The Asos warehouse damaged in a fire near Barnsley is said to contain over 10 million boxes of packaging and is more than 60,000 square metres in size.

The building is described on the Asos website as "the size of six football pitches, so pretty huge. Every one of our products comes here and is checked, picked and packed before making its way by air, land or sea, to be delivered."

The retailer sells fashion and beauty products around the globe and last year made sales of over £750 million.

A message on the website of online fashion retailer Asos said the site was offline after a large fire at a warehouse near Barnsley.