UPDATE 2nd June 2016: BHS is to go into liquidation (the company is closing for good) with the loss of up to 11,000 jobs!
None of the offers from any of company to buy the company were acceptable.
The administrators (people who have to find someone to buy the company) Duff & Phelps had this to say:
“Despite the considerable efforts of the administrators and BHS senior management, it has not been possible to agree a sale of the business,” said the administrators in a statement.
“Although multiple offers were received, none were able to complete a deal due to the working capital required to secure the future of the company.
“Our thoughts today are with the employees. We thank them for their professionalism and hard work. We would also like to thank the great British public for helping us in our efforts to save BHS resulting in several weeks of significant sales.”
BHS currently have 163 stores and it seems all of those stores will be coming to a close in the next few weeks, 8000 members of staff are likely to lose their jobs and 3,000 non-BHS employees will also most likely lose their jobs.
“The British High Street is changing and in these turbulent times for retailers, BHS has fallen as another victim of the seismic shifts we are seeing,” said Philip Duffy, managing director of Duff & Phelps and joint administrator.
“The tireless work and goodwill of the existing management team and employees of BHS with the support of my team were not enough to change the fortunes of the company.”
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Retail Acquisitions (a consortium group) purchased BHS last year for £1 from Sir Philip Green the owner of the Arcadia group (owners of Topshop, Topman, Miss Selfridge, Burton, Evans & Dorothy Perkins etc).
On April 25th 2016 at around 12pm BHS filed for administration.
At the time, Retail Acquisitions said they would deliver £160m of funding to help turn around the fortunes of the chain, but have not been able to raise the sum.
Dominic Chappell owner of BHS said:
“It is with a deep heart that I have to report, despite a massive effort from the team, we have been unable to secure a funder or a trade sale. I would like to say it has been a real pleasure working with all of you on the BHS project, one I will never forget, you all need to keep your heads held high, you all have done a great job, but remember that it was always going to be very very hard to turn around.”
“No one is to blame. It was a combination of bad trading and not being able to raise enough money from the property portfolio.
“In the end, we just couldn’t reach an agreement with Arcadia over pensions.”
It is reported that BHS has debts of more than £1.3 billion, including a pension fund deficit of £571 million. Sir Philip is reported to have offered £80 million towards the cost of BHS pensions, though the regulator could still pursue further payment from the retail billionaire.
Rival retailer Sports Direct is understood to want to some of BHS’s 164 stores, but will only do so if it does not have to take on any pension liabilities.
Should I buy from them?
Yes, however, we would be very hesitant buying anything online, as you risk paying and never getting the goods. If you have a local store then it would be worth supporting them just remember that if they close completely then your 12-month standard warranty would probably also disappear as you would have no company to return the products to.
