The Austin Reed Group, which is owned by Darius Capital, is planning to close 31 of its stores via a Company Voluntary Arrangement (CVA). The retailer, which operates as Austin Reed, CC, and Viyella, says that 22 of its CC stores and nine of its Austin Reed outlets are no longer viable at current rents and it is seeking to achieve reductions from landlords in the run up to closures. The business, which achieved sales of £109 million in the year to January 2014 on which it recorded a loss of £1.29 million before tax, had asked Deloitte to review its position late last year and it had been advised that the proposed CVA was the best way forward. Shareholders have committed £3 million of further investment to enable the retailer to relaunch its websites and get its multichannel offering on track.
The CVA was approved by 95 per cent of the creditors on 4th February 2015 with Deloitte as supervisor.
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