2,900 jobs at risk as retailer collapses
BUSINESS: High street retailer Bonmarché has collapsed into administration, putting almost 2,900 jobs at risk.
The womenswear retailer has become the latest victim of the high street downturn after a “sustained period of challenging trading conditions”. The company employs 2,887 staff, including 200 at its head office.
HIGH STREET retailer Bonmarché has collapsed into administration, putting almost 2,900 jobs at risk.
The retailer has become the latest victim of the high street downturn after a “sustained period of challenging trading conditions”, administrators said.
The womenswear retailer employs 2,887 staff, including 200 at its head office, and operates 318 stores across the UK.
Tony Wright, Alastair Massey and Phil Pierce, of specialist advisory firm FRP, were appointed as joint administrators for the firm on Friday.
FRP said the company will continue to trade with no immediate job losses, as it assesses options to secure the future of the company. All stores remain open and no redundancies have been made,” the administrators said.
The brand has struggled with rising costs, such as business rates and wages, as well as dwindling footfall on UK high streets.
It is the second time the business has fallen into administration in seven years, after it was previously bought in a rescue deal by private equity firm Sun European Partners in 2012.
Bonmarché was founded in 1982, by Parkash Singh Chima. The Sikh businessman arrived in the United Kingdom in 1950, from the Punjab and settled in Ely, Cambridgeshire, from where he launched a door-to-door business selling clothing items.
The family bought two retail clothing firms in 1982 – Wiltex and Hartley – which had 26 indoor market locations across the north. Mr Chima moved to Huddersfield and ran the business with two of his sons Gurchait and Gurnaik.
The first Bonmarché store opened in Doncaster in 1985, and the chain grew to more than 300 stores and a headquarters at Grange Moor.
Mr Chima retired and left two sons to run the business, before they sold to the Peacock Group in July 2002.