Barratts Shoes and Priceless Shoes call in administrators

High Street footwear retailers Barratts Shoes and Priceless Shoes have called in the administrators in a bid to save them from collapse.

Shares in Bradford-based firm Stylo, owners of the chains, saw its shares suspended this morning because of the uncertainty surrounding its financial health.

Last February, Stylo acquired Dolcis, the shoe retailer, after it went into administration. It has been hit by the economic downturn and last month issued a profit warning and said it had experienced a severe fall in sales during November.

Barratts and Priceless have a combined workforce of over 5,000 across 400 outlets nationwide.

Deloitte, who has been appointed as administrator, said the shops were still trading as normal and it was looking to place the companies into a Company Voluntary Arrangement (CVA).

Under the CVA, creditors and landlords vary their terms of trade in order to give Barratts and Priceless extra time to save the businesses from collapse.

Stylo said it needs to adopt a more pro-active restructuring approach to return the business to profitability and pointed out that it has the support from Prudential, Lloyds Banking Group and Barclays to do this.

It concluded that it wants to repay all creditors in full and come to a new agreement with landlords.

Barratts Shoes and Priceless Shoes are a further indication that the economic downturn continues to have a devastating affect on retailers as the two chains add to the growing list of other retailers suffering as consumers tighten their purse strings.

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