Stylo on the brink
SHARES in shoe retailer Stylo have been suspended with the group expected to appoint administrators later today.
The Bradford-based group requested that trading in its shares on the Alternative Investment Market (AIM) be suspended this morning ahead of clarification of board discussions on the future of the business.
However TheBusinessDesk.com has learned that the likely outcome is that administrators will be appointed to the business later today, probably from Deloitte in London.
On Friday Stylo, which owns the Barratts and PriceLess chains, warned that it faced a “challenging” outlook and chairman Michael Ziff and his board were exploring “stratgic options for the business”.
Stylo made a £9.3m loss in the first half of its trading year.
It is the latest retail victim of the downturn which has seen the collapse of Yorkshire-based electrical chains Empire Direct and Miller Brothers and on Friday Bradford-based Greenwoods Menswear was sold in pre-pack deal by administrators from KPMG to a subsidiary of Bosideng, a Chinese clothing business it had a close relationship with.
The deal was said to have saved 556 jobs at 87 of Greenwoods’ 92 stores across the UK.
Richard Fleming, joint administrator and KPMG restructuring partner, said: “We are extremely pleased to have completed a going concern sale that sees 87 stores remain open, securing the jobs of 556 employees – 96% of the workforce. Against a difficult economic background this is a particularly good result.”
