Administration rescued fewer stores in 2013 as retail struggles
THE NUMBER of stores surviving when major retailers fall into administration dropped significantly this year, despite interest rates being held at historically low levels.
According to restructuring and insolvency firm FRP Advisory, the proportion of shops staying open when big retail chains go into administration has dropped, from 50 per cent in 2012 to only 35 per cent during last year.
In 2013, only 700 of the 2,000 stores affected managed to stay open, while 11,000 jobs were lost out of 21,100 at the high street stores that were restructured.
“The economy will no longer support anyone with a broken model. For many of the retailers which entered administration last year there were fundamental questions to address concerning their offering and the market they were chasing, rather than just questions of financial structures,” added Glyn Mummery, partner at FRP Advisory.
Contrary to the troubling climate for some high street outlets, new data released today by the British Retail Consortium (BRC) show triple-digit increases in online searches for UK retailers from export markets like Germany and Russia, showing the strength of the internet as a medium for retail.