Beginning of the end for high street store chain Beales

Moves have begun to close all the sites of department store Beales after administrators were unable to find a buyer for the stricken chain, resuting in the loss of more than 1,000 jobs.

The business was put into administration on January 20, and on February 7, plans were announced to close 12 stores – Bournemouth, Hexham, Worthing, Tonbridge, Peterborough, Mansfield, Keighley, Perth, Spalding, Wisbech, Bedford and Yeovil.

However, currently, these stores still remain open.

Now, joint administrators Will Wright and Steve Absolom, from KPMG, said they will have to close the remaining stores.

The Bournemouth-based chain, which dates back to 1881, has two shops in the North West in Southport and Kendal.

Twenty staff at the store’s headquarters will be made redundant as a result of the most recent closures.

The joint administrators said they continue to hold discussions with several interested parties for a sale of the business as a going concern.

But, with no deliverable offers received for the business to date, they said it is with regret that they announce they are starting preparations for the closure of the remaining 11 stores, and associated stock liquidation.

They said it is anticipated that the remaining stores will trade for a period of around eight weeks while the closing down sales are conducted.

Staff across the stores will be retained to assist with trading over the weeks ahead, and the joint administrators and their teams will continue to work closely with staff during this period, they said.

If a sale is not achieved, the precise closure date for each store will vary, depending on trading performance and other factors encountered during the closure process.

Will Wright said: “We’d like to thank all Beales employees for their wholehearted support and assistance during the administration process.

“We understand that the failure to achieve a sale so far will come as disappointing news, but can assure them that we will continue in our efforts to secure some form of positive outcome.”

Beales’ latest accounts showed that pre-tax losses more than doubled to £3.2m in the year to March 2019 from £1.5m a year before, while revenues remained static at £48.3m. The business had net current debts of £15.8m.

The business said that trading had been hampered by an industry-wide downturn in sales of women’s fashion and the 2018 Summer heatwave.