E&Y looks for budget chain buyers
Administrators from Ernst & Young are looking for buyers for budget retail chains, What Everyone Wants and Famous Brunswick Warehouse, which both collapsed yesterday.
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The chains were formerly part of the Brown & Jackson stable, who bought them for a token amount of £1 in September this year, but were later ditched after B&J fell into the red.
Yesterday they were put into administration by major shareholder Tradegro, Brown and Jackson.
What Everyone Wants is based in Glasgow and recorded turnover of £95m from 130 across the UK in 2001. It employs 2,500 people.
Joint administrator Tom Burton said the business had come under ‘mounting pressure from tight margins and heavy competition in the discount retail sector’. But he said he was looking to sell the company as a going concern and would keep the stores trading.
Gary Wilson, the joint administrator at Famous Brunswick Warehouse, said he had already been contacted by prospective buyers for the 67-strong footwear chain, which operates in North England and Scotland, employs 740 people and last year did turnover of £34m.
He also blamed tight margins and increased competition for the decline at FBW.