Music goes quiet as Fopp calls in E&Y

Published on Friday 29 June 2007 12:01

SCOTTISH music store chain Fopp was today on the verge of administration, just days after it closed its doors for an extraordinary stock take.

The firm has called in Ernst & Young (E&Y) to look at its options, which include administration, while some staff claim they have been told they will not receive their wages.

Fopp, which started as a stall in an arcade in Glasgow in 1981 by Gordon Montgomery and has since built up a network of around 50 stores nationwide, has been in talks with its bankers and E&Y administrator Colin Dempster after it stopped online sales and credit card transactions in its stores.

A spokeswoman for E&Y said: "We have been brought in to discuss the options with the management."

But she insisted Mr Dempster had not yet been appointed by the court as an official administrator.

Some staff claimed they had been told they would not receive their pay packets today and intimated that they would be "protesting in the strongest terms at their extremely bad treatment by this company".

Fopp opened its latest store in Cumbernauld just three weeks ago, but last week closed all of its shops, claiming it was undergoing a massive "stock taking" exercise. On its website, the retailer says it can no longer take online sales due to "circumstances beyond our control".