Hundreds of jobs saved as retailer enters into agreement with creditors

Struggling retail sector

Hundreds of jobs have been saved in the North West after fashion chain Select entered into a Company Voluntary Arrangement.

The chain, which is aimed at young women and has 24 stores in the North West, is the latest retailer to experience trading difficulties.

The deal will see Select paying reduced rents at a number of its struggling branches.

Shop Direct, Carpetright, Toys R Us and Mothercare have all fallen victim to slump on the High Street in recent weeks.

And in a bid to keep its business afloat Select has agreed to enter into a CVA. The arrangement was approved by 94 per cent of the company’s investors at a meeting in London.

The company does not intend to close any stores and the vote means the saving of 2,000 jobs.

The proposals were formulated by the directors of Select, with the assistance of partners Andrew Andronikou, Andrew Hosking and Carl Jackson of corporate restructuring and business advisory firm Quantuma.

Select operates from 183 stores across the UK supported by centralised head office and warehouse facilities, plus online trading.

The company trades as a value ladies’ fashion retailer, targeting 18-35-year-olds with up to 4,000 fashion products.

Andrew Andronikou said: “The proposal primarily seeks to obtain the approval from a number of the company’s landlords to accept a reduction in rent for some stores with an option to take back loss-making sites, which appears to reflect the current prevailing issues for businesses trading on the high streets.

“The company is committed to protecting employment and following the acceptance of the proposal, will seek to continue to operate all of its UK sites.

“In doing so, this should provide stability to landlords and staff with further costs savings to be achieved via economies of scale and a controlled review of operational costs and structures to be conducted outside of the CVA proposal.

“We are naturally pleased with the outcome of today’s meeting and the subsequent result.

“We look forward to working with the creditors in the near future in order to pay their dividend and are delighted that the acceptance of the proposal should see some 2,000 jobs preserved in the UK retail sector.”

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