SELECT FASHION is on the verge of “going bust” with 35 stores set for closure and staff will not be paid redundancy cash.
New documents, seen by The Sun, can reveal the troubled clothing brand has drafted in advisers from Moorfields to oversee the liquidation.
Select Fashion is on the verge of going bust[/caption]
Directors at the ailing fashion brand have said Select should enter into a Creditor’s Voluntary Liquidation (CVL).
This is a process whereby both directors and shareholders at a firm agree to wind up a business that cannot repay its debts.
During this process, the company is shut down and all remaining assets are sold off to help pay back creditors.
It is another nail in the coffin for the business, which last summer entered into a Company Voluntary Arrangement (CVA).
This is a way of restructuring that means a business can continue trading by negotiating its debts, such as cutting rent costs with landlords.
The Sun can now confirm a total of 35 stores will close down as part of the liquidation process.
These include:
- Runcorn
- Ashton-under-Lyne
- Accrington
- Preston
- Birkenhead
- Thornby
- Middlesbrough
- Hull Hessle
- Ashington
- Scunthorpe
- Peterlee
- Hull St Stephen’s
- Scarborough
- Hatfield
- Wellingborough
- Witham
- Bristol Broadmead
- Bristol Broadwalk Shopping Centre
- Torquay
- Newport
- Eastleigh
- Southampton
- Chippenham
- Port Talbot
- Merthyr Tydfil
- Hemel Hampstead
- Worksop
- South Shields
- Coalville
- Kidderminster
- Crewe
- Bletchley
- Wolverhampton
- Hartlepool
- Cowley
It is understood these closures will be completed by Saturday, March 15.
Select’s failure to keep itself afloat has come as a major blow to the hundreds of staff at the impacted stores.
We spoke to one senior member who told The Sun the company’s liquidation was kept “under wraps” and staff only found out through a letter from Moorfields.
They have also been kept in the dark about redundancy pay, with the team understanding they might not receive it because the company has gone bust.
The staff member, who worked for the firm for over a decade said they are owed £10,000.
The employee, who The Sun is choosing not to name, said: “I’m a single parent with no job to go to.
“I now have to wonder how to pay my mortgage and other bills [with] no redundancy money to help.
“We were informed through phone calls just before Christmas about the redundancies and since then we haven’t had any other communication from head office apart from having to count stock.”
“Some managers were made to go help close other stores down and given no thank you for it.”
Their situation is not unique, with all 40 employees at impacted stores understood to not be getting any money.
Redundancy pay is a form of is a financial compensation given to employees who have lost their job.
If a company goes into liquidation staff are still entitled to pay, but sometimes the sale of assets does not cover employees wages.
If this is the case staff can apply for a portion of what they are owed via the government’s Redundancy Payment Service (RPS).
In most cases you can apply for up to eight weeks of your redundancy pay.
You can make a claim online via the claim.redundancy-payments.service.gov.uk/claims/your-redundancy-claim.
The Sun has approached Moorfields for comment.
TROUBLED TIMES FOR SELECT FASHION
The developments come after Select – which is owned by Turkish entrepreneur Cafer Mahiroğlu – fell into administration in 2019.
It was later bought out of administration by Genus UK Limited.
At its peak, the chain which has been on the high street for nearly four decades, had a total of 169 stores.
Today’s reports also follow a barrage of closures made by the bargain fashion store last year.
Bosses decided to call time on its Ipswich, Kent, and Cwmbran branches in 2024.
Select also closed its branch in the Erith Riverside Shopping Centre in London.
The future of around 50 Select stores still remains in question.
RETAIL PAIN IN 2025
The British Retail Consortium has predicted that the Treasury’s hike to employer NICs will cost the retail sector £2.3billion.
Research by the British Chambers of Commerce shows that more than half of companies plan to raise prices by early April.
A survey of more than 4,800 firms found that 55% expect prices to increase in the next three months, up from 39% in a similar poll conducted in the latter half of 2024.
Three-quarters of companies cited the cost of employing people as their primary financial pressure.
The Centre for Retail Research (CRR) has also warned that around 17,350 retail sites are expected to shut down this year.
It comes on the back of a tough 2024 when 13,000 shops closed their doors for good, already a 28% increase on the previous year.
Professor Joshua Bamfield, director of the CRR said: “The results for 2024 show that although the outcomes for store closures overall were not as poor as in either 2020 or 2022, they are still disconcerting, with worse set to come in 2025.”
Professor Bamfield has also warned of a bleak outlook for 2025, predicting that as many as 202,000 jobs could be lost in the sector.
“By increasing both the costs of running stores and the costs on each consumer’s household it is highly likely that we will see retail job losses eclipse the height of the pandemic in 2020.”
