Future of carpet store looks secure
THE future of CarpetRight in Wexford is secure despite the fact the company is closing 92 stores.
Last Thursday CarpetRight announced it is closing 92 stores including five in Northern Ireland and cutting 300 jobs as part of a restructuring plan.
The company released a list of the stores due to close and for the moment there are no planned closures in the Republic of Ireland.
CarpetRight has 20 stores in the Republic, including the store in the Wexford Retail
Park, Cork, Limerick,
Waterford, Dublin,
Mullingar, Athlone,
Tralee and Killarney.
The five stores in
Northern Ireland which have been earmarked for closure are the outlets in Bangor,
Belfast (Newtownabbey), Coleraine, Ballymena and Derry.
The retailer recently started talks with lenders to ensure it does not breach the terms of its bank loans. It is planning a company voluntary arrangement (CVA) that will allow it to shut the worst-performing stores and ask for rent concessions on another 113 sites.
It also said it had identified a ‘technical breach’ in its borrowing agreement. The company said it would raise £60m through a placing of new shares, which would raise money to cut debt and pay for the restructuring plan.
The CVA needs approval from creditors and shareholders, which it will seek at meetings on April 26 and April 30 respectively.
Wilf Walsh, CarpetRight chief executive, said: ‘These tough but necessary actions will enable us to address the burden of a legacy UK property estate consisting of too many poorly located stores.’