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Meat retailer Crawshaws has announced it has entered administration, putting 600 jobs at risk across its 42 stores.
A Crawshaws spokesperson told Retail Sector that the company blamed its financial woes on “increasing competitor pressures on the high street”, namely “discount activity from the likes of Aldi and Lidl”. According to the spokesperson the retailer had also seen “reduced consumer confidence” and the “pressure of increased business rates”.
In its statement, Crawshaws said it “does not have sufficient cash resources to effect the required restructuring of the business”. The administration comes just after the company was “considering a number of remedial actions including raising additional funding through an equity capital”. It said these discussions were unsuccessful.
Crawshaws’ statement read: “In the light of the above and the operational and financial uncertainty which the company now faces, in order to protect both shareholders and creditors, the board has taken the decision to place the company into administration and intends to appoint administrators shortly with the purpose of seeking buyers for the group’s business and assets on a going concern basis.”
The group announced a pre-tax loss of £1.7m in its latest set of results for the 26 weeks up to 29 July, along with a revenue fall of almost 2% down to £21.6m. Earlier in the year the company opened three new factory shops, and had planned to open 10 more next year.
At the time of the financial report Crawshaws CEO Jim Viggars described the results as “disappointing” however he said that remedying its issues was “achievable over the medium-term”. Crawshaws has requested that the London Stock Exchange’s junior AIM market suspends the trading of its shares.
