Express & Star

Select deal may keep shops open

High Street women's fashion chain Select hopes to not to have to close any of its stores after an agreement on measures to reduce rents for some of them.

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The Select shop in Dudley Street, Wolverhampton

A Company Voluntary Arrangement has been approved by 94 per cent of its creditors at a meeting in London.

The company does not intend to close any stores and the vote means the saving of 2,000 jobs.

Select has stores in Dudley Street in Wolverhampton, Bradford Mall in Walsall and in New Square in West Bromwich, as well as in Birmingham's Grand Central shopping mall and in New Street.

The proposals were formulated by the directors of Select, with the assistance of partners Andrew Andronikou, Andrew Hosking and Carl Jackson of corporate restructuring and business advisory firm Quantuma.

Select operates from 183 stores across the UK supported by centralised head office and warehouse facilities, plus online trading. The company trades as a value retailer, targeting 18-35-year-olds with up to 4,000 fashion products.

Mr Andronikou said: “The proposal primarily seeks to obtain the approval from a number of the company’s landlords to accept a reduction in rent for some stores with an option to take back loss-making sites, which appears to reflect the current prevailing issues for businesses trading on the high streets.

“The company is committed to protecting employment and following the acceptance of the proposal, will seek to continue to operate all of its UK sites.

“In doing so, this should provide stability to landlords and staff with further costs savings to be achieved via economies of scale and a controlled review of operational costs and structures to be conducted outside of the CVA proposal.

“We are naturally pleased with the outcome of today’s meeting and the subsequent result.

“We look forward to working with the creditors in the near future in order to pay their dividend and are delighted that the acceptance of the proposal should see some 2,000 jobs preserved in the UK retail sector.”