Just over half of Ponden Home’s stores could re-open after it and sister brands were bought out of administration.
Before administration in November, Ponden had 73 stores. Eight closed at the time of administration and of the 65, 34 stores will not reopen.
Administrators FRP Advisory concluded a deal with Purepay Retail, a consortium of investors led by Steve Simpson, the existing chief operating officer of Edinburgh Woollen Mill Group for Ponden, Bonmarche and Edinburgh Woollen Mill. Purepay Retail will operate under licence.
Tony Wright, joint administrator and partner at FRP, says: ‘We have extensively marketed these businesses for sale and this transaction provides the best chance to save stores and jobs, but also meet our own statutory obligations to creditors. However, with such little visibility on future trading conditions in UK retail, we regret that not all of Edinburgh Woollen Mill and Ponden Home could be rescued. This has resulted in a significant number of redundancies at a particularly challenging time of year and period of economic uncertainty.’
