Early deadline set for bids for Allders retail chain

Published on Thursday 3 February 2005 02:17

SUITORS of Allders just have until tomorrow to make a bid for the 45-store retail chain, the group’s administrators said yesterday.

Kroll, which took control of the company last week, said it will decide by tomorrow if the struggling retail group can be sold as a going concern or whether it will have to be broken up and sold off piecemeal.

The administrator said it has to act fast, before the business starts to deteriorate, if it is to extract the best value for the chain’s creditors.

A spokesman for Kroll said it plans to reveal tomorrow whether it has received viable offers for the chain of home furnishing stores. More than 60 suitors have expressed an interest in Allders, although it is unclear whether any will make firm bids.

Possible bidders are thought to include Debenhams, discount clothing chain Primark and a number of private equity groups including Alchemy and Sun Capital.

"We have said we want to have received and assessed bids by the end of Friday to see if they are viable and whether it is in the best interests of creditors to proceed," the Kroll spokesman said. Kroll is reviewing options for the business and has said it is hopeful it could sell the business as a going concern, allowing creditors to be paid more quickly and thus possibly safeguarding jobs.

The group is still trading as normal, although 130 staff - including chief executive Terry Green - have lost their jobs, equivalent to about one in four of the group’s head office staff. The 5,200 employees in the chain’s 45 stores have not been affected.

Commercial director Phil Cox and finance chief Harvey Ainley were also fired. Both Green and Cox were part of the Scarlett Retail buy-out team that took the company private in a 160m deal two years ago.

The two men - who were paid about 500,000 a year - have been fired without compensation and will join the list of creditors if they pursue their contractual payouts. However, they are thought to be still working with the administrators.

The retailer went into administration last month after its owners, led by property group Minerva, failed to find a buyer.

Despite a management shake-up two years ago, the Croydon-based company has continued to rack up losses. Minerva made a loss of 22.6m on its 60 per cent share of the business in the six months to the end of June 2004.