Fear for 4,700 jobs as two UK retailers go into administration

[LONDON] UK fashion chains Peacocks and Jaeger have gone into administration, their owners announced on Thursday, putting 4,700 jobs at nearly 500 shops under threat.

Parent company the EWM group, which had been searching for a buyer, said administrators had been appointed, although no redundancies or store closures had yet been confirmed.

Peacocks is based in Cardiff and has 423 shops across the country with 4,369 staff. Jaeger runs 76 stores and concessions and has 347 employees.

EWM earlier this month placed its Edinburgh Woollen Mill and Ponden Home businesses into administration and had hoped to find a buyer or investor to take over Peacocks and Jaeger.

A two-week High Court deadline for them to do so has now expired.

Joint administrator Tony Wright, from FRP Advisory, said they were in "advanced discussions with a number of parties and working hard to secure a future for both businesses".

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EWM blamed "the continuing deterioration of the retail sector" due to coronavirus closures and restrictions, which had complicated the process of finding a potential buyer.

"While those talks are ongoing, we no longer have an option to extend the standstill agreement originally imposed by the High Court six weeks ago any further," it said.

"Therefore as directors we have taken the desperately difficult decision to place Peacocks and Jaeger into administration while those talks continue."

AFP