Wine Cellar appoints administrators
109 of 170 shops sold, 61 to close
Deloitte has been appointed as administrators to Wine Cellar Limited, a chain of 170 off licences and convenience stores trading under the Booze Buster and Simply Drinks brands.
In spite of an extensive search to find an investor or buyer, the company was struggling to compete with supermarkets, and with a quarterly rent payment due this week it could no longer continue trading.
Administrators Bill Dawson and Dan Butters have already agreed a deal to sell the stock and 109 of the 170 stores to Walsall-based drinks distributor EFB Retail Ltd.
“The sale includes 109 stores, which will secure around 640 jobs at these outlets and around 60 staff from head office,” said Dawson.
“The administrators are not in a position to continue trading the remaining 61 stores which have not been sold.
"These stores have been closed and unfortunately around 320 employees have been made redundant. We will be working closely with the Redundancy Payments Office to provide support for these staff.”
The company's last filed accounts for the year to 30 January 2008, show a £956,000 loss on sales of £62.6m.
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