A rescue bid offer made by Poundworld founder Chris Edwards has been been rejected by appointed administrators Deloitte, who say it is not high enough.
On 3 July a Deloitte spokesperson said the group was continuing “to seek a buyer of all or parts of the business”, but added to date no party has presented a “credible and acceptable bid”. Edwards said he had made “a substantial and credible offer”, which “hasn’t been given the respect it deserves”.
The administrators recently hit back at accusations made by Edwards over the handling of the company’s administration. The former Poundworld boss said “the whole administration process has been handled badly” and he added if something doesn’t happen in the next few days, “the business will go to the wall”.
Edwards, who originally sold the business in 2015 for £150m, said the “process has taken so long” that shops “are now holding closing-down sales and selling stock that isn’t being replenished”. He added that the task of saving the business has become more difficult as a result and has put “another nail in the coffin”.
Commenting on the rejection of the rescue bid, Edwards said: “Although it was close to what the administrator wants, we’ve now had written confirmation that it’s not high enough, which I’m shocked and surprised at, considering we were going to save 3000 jobs.
“You have to consider the moral argument in this and the fact that people’s livelihoods are on the line and clearly to some people it appears that doesn’t matter.”
Retail Sector has approached Deloitte for comment.
Since the Americans taken over poundworld it went down hill. Stupid greedy pigs they should just accept the offer instead of running the company to the ground.
Soooo greedy …. They don’t give a shit about people , they had very good offer but want more money for they own pockets .It’s f… joke
We as managers are totally disgusted with how this is being handled our team behind us feel the same, they need to think about all the staff that will be put out of a job , they need to accept the offer Chris Edwards as put to them and let us get our shops back to the standards they should be , our customers are keeping us all going at the moment even they are shocked with the way Deloitte are handling it , they would love to see chris take the reigns again and get the business back to how it should be A POUND SHOP it should never had been changed to a multi price.
TPG have drained the company of cash and wasted so much money it’s unbelievable, they were never in it for the long term, only in for the quick buck and out again, whatever Chris has offered is a lot more than what they are going to get from trading empty shops, plus it will cost Chris an awful lot more,to get stores back to where they should be, and recruit to replace the now many vacancies. Let’s not let a little thing like 5000 people who need their jobs, get in the way of Deloite taking what TPG has left to line their own pockets. Why is there no government watchdog looking into these American corporations, why are they allowing them to buy British companies,bleed them dry, and then clear off leaving, more empty shops in our high streets. Has Deloite recently, ever managed to successfully rescue a company, which has so obviously been very badly mismanaged,? An offer is on the table, and been refused, why? Why did the other interested parties walk away? Whole thing is a farce, beginning to wonder if selling has ever been the objective
Me and my team feel exactly the same, its very well said. I thought they would have sorted it out by now
The government should get involved and force the administrators to agree and save the 3000 staff and their jobs.
How much of the offer that was put forward is to pay the fat cats at the administrators..
I do not work for poundworld however i am totaly discussed that administrators would put 3000 jobs at risk . What kind of immoral, incompetent, greedy, unrealistic people are they? Unrealistic for thinking in this retail climate that there would be offers in mass TAKE THE OFFER FROM CHRIS EDWARDS and give 3000 people the same opportunities you the administrators have ie paying bills , buying food , treating there children, keeping there homes basic needs but importsnt needs.
DELOITTE SHAMEFULL !!!!!!!!!!!!!!
If the government can hold the administrators accountable should all these people loose there lively hoods , then may be they will think twice at the level of greed required.
It makes me wonder if it’s Deloitte not accepting the offer or TPG instructing them not to because by accepting Chris Edwards offer will be seen as a slap in the face for them and a realisation that a down to earth Yorkshire lad can do a better job.Swallow your pride Deloitte and TPG and let Mr Edwards do what he does best and run a company that was in 15 million profit before you milked the life out of it.
Deloitte are administrators, their Job is to claw back as much money that is owed to poundworld’s creditors . Poundworld made a loss of £17.1 million last year so i imagine they have quite a few creditors that need to be paid. If these creditors don’t get paid they could go into administration and put their staff jobs at risk.
Yes it is terrible that 5000 poundworld employees could lose their jobs if no buyer is found but it is not the fault of deloite it is the fault of TPG and their management team.
Not everybody at head office got behind the multi price idea (which was promted by brexit fears reducing the value of the pound), so it was done half arsed they wanted it to fail. Poundland have items costing over £1 and they made profit over christmas
Money was pumped into the business at the beginning of 2018 and instead of investing in stock etc it was wasted on a new fleet of company cars , the IT department and security equipment .
I’ve worked for poundworld for over 5 years and it is very sad but it has been in decline for a while. Hopefully Chris Edwards can come back with an improved offer he’s not short of a pound or two
lf Chris Edwards cared so much about the business he would be trying to save the 5000 plus jobs. Don’t forget he bailed in 2015 with a fat lump sum without thought for any of his employees. Sadly the business was going down the pan long before he sold out , Poor management starts at the top and the little workers are the one who pay the price. Mr Edwards shame on you.
I am amazed at the fact that a company the size of poundworld is going under
This is fat cats trying to ale a quick buck
Most of the comments on this article are correct
It’s all about the money
TPG are not interested in people they just interested in quick cash
As a proud Britain we should all show solidarity
This company can still make a lot of money in the right hands
I’ve been in business for 25 years and I would make this company very profitable
I just don’t have 50 million to buy it back
I just wish someone with the power to influence these large money grabbing multi nationals and stop it
We are British and I remember when we use to fight for are rights
This is the start of bigger things to come in the UK unless we all stand together and say enough is enough
I’m sick of other countries policies and multi nationals taking the piss out of us brits
Has everyone forgot what we went through to get where we are ?
Or is that just November the 11th for 2 mins
Let’s sort this out these people have families to feed
They deserve to be defended
Mr D Harper , Warrington