British co-founder of fashion retailer ASOS dies after falling from balcony in Thailand

BANGKOK- Quentin Griffiths, who co-founded British fast-fashion retailer ASOS ASOS.L, has died after a fall from a balcony in Thailand, Thai police said on Friday.

Police told Reuters that Griffiths, 58, had fallen from the 17th floor of an apartment block in the seaside resort city of Pattaya on February 9.

The police went to the scene and found the body of a British national, whom they identified as Quentin John Griffiths, on the ground directly below the balcony, they said.

Police said initial investigations suggested suicide, and there were no indications of foul play. CCTV showed no sign of anybody entering his apartment, where he had lived alone, but his body has been sent for an autopsy, they added.

The police also quoted a Thai friend of Griffiths as saying the Briton had been worried about lawsuits from his former wife, a Thai national.

Documents related to those lawsuits were found in his apartment, the police said.

ASOS FOUNDED IN 2000

The case did not initially attract media attention in Pattaya, which has a large contingent of foreign residents, until The Sun newspaper in Britain reported it on Thursday.

Griffiths co-founded ASOS, then known as 'As Seen on Screen' with Nick Robertson, a former advertising executive and great-grandson of tailor Austin Reed, in 2000, and floated it on London's Alternative Investment Market in 2001.

The company defied the wave of failures that hit other web-based companies after the Internet bubble burst and emerged as a standout success in the British retail scene.

ASOS expanded rapidly into new countries, broadening its offer of both own-brand and third-party products, and moved quickly to capitalise on the rise of social media.

Griffiths was marketing director at ASOS before he left the firm in 2004. He remained a large shareholder in ASOS for nearly another decade.

In recent years, the online retailer has struggled with profitability against a backdrop of rising costs and stiffer competition from cheaper Chinese rivals.

Shares of the company, whose own-label creations have been worn by the likes of Michelle Obama and Catherine, Princess of Wales, have slid around 96% from their peak value.

Reporting by Panarat Thepgumpanat in Bankok and Yamini Kalia in Bengaluru; Writing by Kay Johnson; Editing by Gareth Jones and Jan Harvey/Reuters