Thu, 06 Feb 2014 | ADMINISTRATION
Base Retail has brought in the administrators to its Base Menswear business, and is attributing the failure to extortionate rates and pressure on middle-market men's clothing.
Administrators at Portland are working on ascertaining the current level of debt and calculating what's available for payment that creditors might expect. Four of its stores – at Lakeside, Watford, Bromley and Luton - have closed and at least ten staff have been made redundant.
Its remaining stores, located in Basildon, Bluewater, Romford, Stratford and White City, are still trading as normal.
“The men’s business has been challenging with a capital ‘C’ for a number of years. We have seen our market diminish to a point where it’s become unsustainable. After poor Christmas trading, I had no choice but to take this action,” managing director Marc Granditer told Drapers.
While rents can be tricky to meet, the rates proved to be the real challenge, Mr Granditer said. “The absurd situation in some of our stores where we were paying twice as much rates as rent. It’s obscene.”
The failure of Base Menswear has not affected Base Childrenswear, which is registered as a separate company on Companies House. Mr Granditer intends for the restructuring to enable this more resilient aspect of Base Retail to continue, and focus efforts on the children’s clothing market in the future.
________________________________________________________________________
Related information:
Distressed business buyers take note: more retailers facing trouble
Acquisition service
Project Richmond provides complete, software-led warehouse management solutions and projects that aim to automate various processes, ultimately improving clients’ operational accuracy and efficiency and reducing expenditure.
The company specialises in the provision of high-quality technical training programmes. Utilising a skilled network of trainers, the business primarily delivers certified courses that enable delegates to attain coveted qualifications.
The company provides end-to-end, turnkey design, engineering and consultancy solutions, primarily working within prominent industries throughout the UK.
Please choose your settings for this site below. For more information please read our Cookie Policy
These cookies are necessary for our website to function properly and provide you with access to all features.
These are analytics cookies that help us to improve the way our website works.
These are used to improve the functional performance of the website and make it easier for you to use.