Accountancy Magazine
Ethel Austin in administration
Sister group Au Naturale goes too
08 February 2010
Turnaround specialist MCR has been appointed administrator to value clothes retailer Ethel Austin and homewares chain Au Naturale.
Ethel Austin has a nationwide network of nearly 300 stores and was established more than 70 years ago. Au Naturale is a sister company and both are based at Knowsley, Merseyside.
The joint administrators are partners Geoff Bouchier, David Whitehouse and Philip Duffy.
Bouchier said: ‘The joint administrators are trading the companies in administration, in the short term, with a view to finding a purchaser for the businesses as a going concern.
‘In the current economic climate there are no guarantees that purchasers will be found.’
He added that MCR was ‘at this stage unable to rule out store closures and redundancies’.
Bouchier blames the ‘onset of the global economic crisis which has hit the retail sector particularly hard’.
He said: ‘As a consequence of this, the companies have struggled to secure funders, which in turn has impacted their ability to generate sales revenue.’
He went on: ‘This has been compounded by poor trading conditions in January, attributed to the adverse weather conditions, which severely restricted the companies’ cashflow.
‘The companies have continued to seek additional finance up until very recently but without success.’
Ethel Austin has a nationwide network of nearly 300 stores and was established more than 70 years ago. Au Naturale is a sister company and both are based at Knowsley, Merseyside.
The joint administrators are partners Geoff Bouchier, David Whitehouse and Philip Duffy.
Bouchier said: ‘The joint administrators are trading the companies in administration, in the short term, with a view to finding a purchaser for the businesses as a going concern.
‘In the current economic climate there are no guarantees that purchasers will be found.’
He added that MCR was ‘at this stage unable to rule out store closures and redundancies’.
Bouchier blames the ‘onset of the global economic crisis which has hit the retail sector particularly hard’.
He said: ‘As a consequence of this, the companies have struggled to secure funders, which in turn has impacted their ability to generate sales revenue.’
He went on: ‘This has been compounded by poor trading conditions in January, attributed to the adverse weather conditions, which severely restricted the companies’ cashflow.
‘The companies have continued to seek additional finance up until very recently but without success.’
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