Lee Longlands buys troubled Furniture Barn branches

Furniture Barn had eight branches across the Midlands and North when it appointed FRP partners Nigel Hamilton Smith and Geoff Rowley as joint administrators last December.

They closed three warehouses in West Bromwich, Doncaster and Thurrock and subsequently decided to close its stores in Sutton Coldfield on the Alice Retail Park and Thurrock. Six jobs were lost from the closure of the West Bromwich site.

Birmingham retailer Lee Longlands has now acquired the stores located in Kidderminster on the Crossley Retail Park, Grantham, Sheffield and Doncaster, and will start trading from these stores immediately.

Darren Campo, financial director for Lee Longlands, said: "This is the first major investment for Lee Longlands since the MBO was completed last year.

"It's an important and exciting opportunity for us that is aligned to our strategic growth objectives."

All stores will form part of the Lee Longlands Trading Group but will be branded as Furniture Barn, although the Kidderminster store will be rebranded as Lee Longlands in the next three to six months.

The 26 staff employed at the four stores will be retained with a further 10 roles being created.

The Furniture Barn website has also been acquired as part of the deal, but Lee Longlands will not take ownership or control of the website until May 8, when the Market Harborough store - which does not form part of the acquisition - will be closed down by the administrators.

The collapse of the stores around 59 job losses in total.

In a statement in issued in December, Joint administrators Nigel Hamilton Smith and Geoff Rowley of FRP Advisory said they had 'continually reviewed the financial position of the group and operations of the businesses'.