Men’s fashion retailer Blue Inc victim of high street carnage as it enters administration
Men's fashion retailer Blue Inc has become the latest victim of the carnage on the high street as it crashed into administration last week.
The chain appointed turnaround specialist Begbies Traynor to find a buyer last month after a string of cost-cutting and restructuring measures had failed to take it into the black.
However, no white knight was found and Begbies Traynor has now placed Blue Inc into administration.
The retailer was formerly chaired by ex-Marks & Spencer boss Lord Stuart Rose who stepped down in 2014 as Blue Inc lined up a £60m stock market float which ultimately failed to get away.
The Sunday Times reports that there are at least two parties who are interested in acquiring some of the chain’s branches and one potential buyer who could acquire its brand.
Blue Inc’s website was not accessible yesterday with a holding page that said “We’'re refreshing our look”.
According to its Twitter feed, Blue Inc’s website has been down since at least late November due to a “logistics issue” and it has not been taking online orders.
The group had struck a company voluntary arrangement (CVA) with its creditors that saved it £9m last year, but even with that gain it made a loss of £2.6m in 2017.
The company received equity injections from shareholders of £1.6m from Uniserve Holdings and £1m from Padma Textiles, but this was not enough to stave off administration.
The collapse follows an awful November on the high street and the recent failures of more famous retail brands including department store chain House of Fraser and toy retailers Toys R Us as the sector fails to get to grips with online competition.
Begbies Traynor said: "We can confirm that Blue Inc entered administration on Monday 10 December 2018. The remaining 31 stores will continue trading while discussions are in progress regarding the future of the brand.
"We cannot make any further comment at this time."