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As part of its community and sustainability initiatives, Hawaiian is expanding a partnership with business accelerator Mana Up through an investment in its Mana Up Capital II fund to help more local companies scale for the global market. Hawaiian has featured more than a dozen local retailers in the food, fashion, beauty and home and art sectors in its onboard service since becoming Mana Up’s official airline sponsor in 2017.  

Hawaiian last month announced it is investing in locally produced sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) to reduce flight emissions and support agriculture in partnership with Pono Pacific and Par Hawaii, and that it would be the first airline to take deliveries of Hawai‘i-made SAF later this year. The airline is also working to advance innovative lower-emission options for short-haul air service with an investment in hybrid-electric propulsion developer Ampaire and increasing use of electric ground service vehicles at Honolulu airport. 

Finally, the airline will be providing grants to nonprofit organizations promoting cultural programs, environmental preservation and perpetuation of native Hawaiian art and language through the Alaska Airlines | Hawaiian Airlines Foundation, a newly integrated 501(c)(3) foundation dedicated to these efforts in their two namesake states. 

The Hawaiian Airlines’ Kahuʻewai Hawai‘i Investment Plan is part of Alaska Air Group’s Alaska Accelerate strategic plan to deliver on the combined airline’s vision of connecting guests to the world with a remarkable travel experience rooted in safety, care and performance. 

Claire’s has 154 stores and 1,355 staff, while The Original Factory shop has 140 stores and 1,220 staff.

Modella purchased Claire’s in September, six weeks after its previous collapse into administration, in a deal which saw around 1,000 job losses at the retailer, while 145 stores closed.

The investment firm has owned The Original Factory Shop since early last year.

“This has been a very tough decision,” said Modella. “We have worked intensively in an effort to save both businesses, having made last-ditch attempts to rescue them, but neither has a realistic possibility of trading profitably again.”

Modella said that the chains were “highly vulnerable” even before it bought them. It also blamed challenges including the climate on the high street, which it said “remains extremely challenging”, and government policy.

The two shops are the latest casualties of a tough trading environment which has seen high street sales fall as shoppers move online, ditching old favourites facing the high cost of maintaining brick-and-mortar stores.

“A combination of very weak consumer confidence, highly adverse government fiscal policies and continued cost inflation is causing many established and much-loved businesses to suffer badly,” Modella said.

The investment firm has become increasingly prominent on Britain’s high streets, having bought WH Smith’s high street chain last year and taken over arts and crafts retailer Hobbycraft a year earlier.