Benetton shops go into receivership: Outlets operated by Grandwear close as Italian group recalls stock
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Your support makes all the difference.A GROUP of 17 Benetton shops has gone into receivership with the loss of 120 jobs.
The closures leave more than 250 Benetton shops open in Britain. Receivers to Grandwear, which ran the 17 Benetton shops from Cardiff to Canterbury, claim they could have continued to trade but the Italian clothes group refused to allow them to sell the stock.
Philip Monjack, of the insolvency specialist Leonard Curtis, said: 'We would continue to trade to maintain goodwill for the business in our search for a buyer, but Benetton, which is owed a substantial amount and claims ownership of all stock, is not prepared to play.
'They are insisting that we return everything, and with no stock we are forced to close the shops. Now we are doing our best to find someone who will want to take on the premises and re-employ at least some of the staff.'
Benetton manufactures and distributes fashion clothing to 7,000 agency shops worldwide. A spokeswoman for Benetton said that, as far as Grandwear was concerned: 'Yes, Benetton has recalled the stock. We have not been offered any payment for the stock by the receivers.
'Benetton is actively contacting all landlords of the shops in question to do everything possible to get the landlords to reassign their leases to new operators, so the stores can reopen as soon as possible.'
Piero Zarantonello, managing director of Grandwear, said the company collapsed because it had borrowed too heavily in a management buyout in 1989. Benetton and its banks - Barclays, Figurehead Finance and Riggs Bank - refinanced Grandwear last year after heavy losses but decided to pull the plug this week, despite pounds 8m sales last year.
Benetton is confident new proprietors can be found for the stores. The spokeswoman said: 'It's obviously in Benetton's interests that the stores reopen as soon as possible. Quite apart from the image problem, there is the commercial question.'
Receivers have been appointed to Grandwear Holdings and its subsidiaries Grandwear, with 16 shops, and Mobille Impex, all in the South of England. These include a branch in Oxford Street, London, and two in Canterbury.
Mr Monjack said Grandwear had gone bust because of bad economic trading conditions and high prices.
(Photograph omitted)
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