Historic menswear retailer becomes latest high street casualty
Greenwoods, the Bradford-headquartered menswear retailer, is in liquidation after trading for more than 150 years.
A message on the company’s website currently reads “sorry, this store is currently unavailable.” Some of Greenwoods store windows also have signs up which say: “All outlets of Versatile International Trading Ltd t/a Greenwoods Menswear have now closed for business permanently.”
The announcement comes around 18 months after the company was bought out of administration by Versatile International Trading. At the time, the deal saved 40 retail stores and protected 181 jobs. The remaining 22 stores closed immediately, resulting in 88 redundancies.
Greenwoods, a retailer of formal and casual menswear, including shoes and accessories, reported a turnover of around £20m in 2017. It offered a formal suit hire service, under the Company’s “1860” brand. Greenwoods operated from 63 stores and 2 concessions throughout the UK in 2017, with its head office and warehouse located in Bradford.
The Bradford-headquartered company was founded by Sir Willie Greenwood. At its peak, Greenwoods had around 200 shops across the country.
It still remains unknown how many jobs will be affected by the liquidation or if a rescue deal is being pursued.
Greenwoods is the latest retailer to be hit by a downturn in footfall and reduced consumer confidence. Over the Christmas period, retailer HMV was placed in administration, putting more than 2,000 jobs at risk. Christmas trading updates are expected in the coming days from many well-known UK high street retailers.
