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A fast growing Newcastle firm which aims to transform the fashion retail sector has made its first major acquisition.

Online venture Hire Street was launched just over a year ago by former investment banker Isabella West, 26, to disrupt the fast fashion market by encouraging shoppers to rent clothes rather than buy them.

The company emerged from Ms West’s mission to stop unwanted outfits ending up at landfill, and follows research which shows that more than 50m summer outfits, sold at a cost of almost £3bn, will be worn once and binned weeks later.

Customers can book out outfits in advance and hire them for four to 16 days before they are returned, to a growing warehouse of dresses at Hirestreet’s logistics and distribution centre in Scotland.

Now, fresh from securing six-figure syndicated funding, primarily from London-based retail experts, the firm has acquired Manchester-based Hire That Look, which was launched at the end of 2016 for an undisclosed sum that sees the two brands consolidate its operations under the Hirestreet brand.

Hirestreet founder and chief executive Isabella West says the move comes as her growing company looks to boost its own online technical capabilities.

She said: “I’ve long admired the way Hire That Look operated, so this is a tactical play to improve Hirestreet’s digital offering.

“We’re rapidly expanding, and we see the acquisition of Hire That Look as a positive step in achieving our ambitions of being the º£½ÇÊÓƵ’s number one high street rental service.