Hurley’s director buys assets
A director of the collapsed clothing chain Hurley’s Menswear has bought some of the company’s business and assets.
Mark Hurley has spent £83,000, plus VAT, on the assets of Hurley’s Bolton store as well as stock, goodwill and the website through a company called Merepress Ltd.
The details, contained within a report by administrators from Manchester accountancy firm Tomlinsons, also show a company associated with the clothing brands Lacoste and Henri-Lloyd bought the business and assets of four of the shops for £44,000.
Hurley’s had seven shops in Liverpool, Bolton, Leeds and Manchester, some of them operating under the names Lacoste and Henri-Lloyd under licence.
It ran into trouble before Christmas with liabilities of £1.5m. The administrators said one of its biggest problems was high rental costs at some stores.
A plan to arrange a pre-packaged sale of the business was derailed by an attempt by creditors of the Leeds and central Manchester shops to seize possessions as payment for debt.
The administrators said administration was the best way, “to salvage the position for the general body of creditors.”
They considered running the business as a going concern but there was not enough cash to meet the £51,000 a week overheads. Plans to seek funding from Lacoste and Henri-Lloyd also fell through.
Some £1.4m is owed to unsecured creditors who are expected to receive an as yet unspecified return on the debt. The biggest creditors are Lacoste and Henri-Lloyd.
