Shake-up at retail chain saves 150 jobs via MBO

More than 150 retail jobs have been saved with the sale of four outlet department stores through a management buyout.

But administrators were unable to save 80 jobs due to the closure of five stores.

The Leicester office of Springfields Advisory completed the sale of the four outlet department stores of retailer Lewis’s Home Retail Limited in a management buyout.

Situl Raithatha and Deviesh Raikundalia were appointed joint administrators of Lewis’s Home Retail Limited, which operates the TJ Hughes Outlet Division, on February 28.

TJ Hughes is a Liverpool-based retail business dating back to 1912.

Immediately upon appointment the businesses were sold through a pre-pack sale to LHR Holding Limited and the staff were transferred as part of the transaction.

Unfortunately, it was not possible to sell several smaller outlets and this has led to 80 redundancies and five store closures.

No details of the stores sold, or closed, have been released, although it is understood two of the store closures could be in Chesterfield and Sheffield.

LHR Holding owns 18 TJ Hughes branded department stores nationally, as well as tjhughes.co.uk, and they are not affected by this announcement.

Situl Raithatha, joint administrator, said: “Sadly, failures on the High Street are all too commonplace.

“The sector has seen significant structural change and the environment continues to be challenging.

“We are pleased to have completed the sale which has helped secure the future of a significant proportion of the workforce.”

The original TJ Hughes business operated 57 stores at its height, but fell into administration in 2011.

The TJ Hughes flagship store in Liverpool’s London Road was sold to Speke-based Benross Group, headed by Anil Juneja, who also bought three other stores. Lewis Home Retail bought the brand name and website.

During the intervening years the business has grown to around 25 stores, prior to the latest turn of events.