Threshers enters into exclusive talks with KPMG over Unwins deal

Threshers, the UK's largest independent off-licence chain, is in exclusive talks to acquire some of the 381 sites owned by Unwins, its troubled rival which was forced into administration on Monday evening.

Representatives from Terra Firma, the private-equity group which owns Threshers, joined the administrators KPMG yesterday at Unwins' headquarters in Dartford to try to thrash out a deal.

Yesterday afternoon, lawyers were still determining the exact terms of the Unwins shop leases. But it is believed a deal could be struck as early as today. According to sources close to the negotiations, Threshers is proposing to take about 200 of the stores, possibly re-employing up to 600 of the staff recently laid off.

A quick sale of the Unwins sites could help provide certainty for the company's employees, many of whom live above the shops that they run and are fearing the loss of their accommodation as well as their jobs. Unwins laid off 1,400 staff on Tuesday, having made 400 more redundant only days before. An acquisition by Threshers is the most likely route to some of the former employees securing their employment in the same shops.

Threshers - which already owns a number of other off-licence brands, including Wine Rack and The Local - has 1,850 outlets in the UK, employing more than 12,000 staff. Its share of the off-trade market is believed to be more than 15 per cent, while Unwins' share is less than 3 per cent.

The retail market for alcoholic drinks is dominated by the supermarkets, which account for some 70 per cent of all sales.

Guy Hands, the entrepreneur who heads Terra Firma, bought Threshers from Whitbread and Punch for £225m five years ago.

Unwins went into administration on Monday night when its bankers, HBOS, pulled the plug on its banking facilities. DM Private Equity, which bought the company for £32m in March, claims that after a full examination of the books, it discovered a £13.5m hole in the company's accounts.

DM is now threatening to take legal action against the company's former directors, shareholders and auditors. But former directors and shareholders have insisted they gave DM sufficient warning of the company's fragile state, and say its threat of legal action is unfounded.