The excessive road stationery chain Paperchase is lining up directors amid a race to seek out new backers.
Sky News has learnt that the retailer has put Begbies Traynor, the skilled companies agency, on standby to deal with a possible insolvency.
City sources stated that Paperchase was persevering with to hunt a solvent rescue deal, and that Begbies’ potential function represented “sensible contingency planning” within the occasion that one didn’t materialise.
An extra pre-pack administration was now more and more doubtless, they added.
Earlier this month, Sky News revealed that Paperchase had been put up on the market simply 4 months after its newest change of possession.
The chain was taken over in August by Steve Curtis, an skilled retail investor who has been concerned with Tie Rack and Jigsaw.
It is now being auctioned by PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), the accountancy agency.
Retail Realisation, an trade advisory agency with which Mr Curtis and turnaround agency Rcapital are affiliated, was additionally concerned in final summer time’s deal.
Paperchase had beforehand been one of many quite a few retail casualties of COVID-19, having undergone a pre-pack administration in January 2021.
It trades from about 100 shops, and Mr Curtis was stated on the time of the latest takeover to be backing an present administration plan to develop that quantity to roughly 150 within the coming years.
Permira Credit, the earlier proprietor, had invested in Paperchase’s digital providing in addition to new store openings and government recruitment since its brush with administration.
At the time of its final brush with insolvency, Paperchase employed almost 1,300 individuals, and traded from greater than 125 websites throughout the UK.
Its retailers included concessions at House of Fraser, Selfridges and numerous Next shops.
It was unclear on Tuesday what number of shops and jobs may be put in danger by one other administration course of.
The plan to develop the chain by 50% was a daring guess on the potential of the Paperchase model and enterprise mannequin given the difficult financial backdrop.
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Paperchase was one in every of dozens of outstanding retailers which crashed into insolvency throughout the COVID-19 disaster, with different notable names together with Debenhams and the Dorothy Perkins-to-Topshop empire, Arcadia Group.
A Paperchase spokesman declined to remark.
Source: information.sky.com”
