Newbury's Sofa Workshop closing after company put into administration

The Sofa Workshop in Northbrook Street, Newbury, is set to close after the company was put into administration.

The branch, which opened on Good Friday in 2015, is one of 16 stores which is closing across the UK today (Thursday).

Seventy-seven members of staff in the UK are being made redundant, however the company says no disruption to customer orders is expected after the existing customer order book was sold to Timothy Oulton.

A statement on the company website put the move down to trading losses exacerbated by the pandemic.

It reads: “The company has suffered trading losses, especially in light of Covid-related supply chain disruption and significant increases in transportation costs on importing goods from Asia into the UK over the last year.”

Toby Banfield, David Baxendale and Zelf Hussain of PwC have been appointed as administrators.

PwC said the furniture retailer had been unable to meet payments and has remained reliant on the support of its shareholders.

PwC added that potential sale options were explored with the aim of a purchaser providing the funding required to continue to deliver the business plan and take the business forward.

No viable offers were received, however.

Toby Banfield, joint administrator and PwC partner, said: “Unfortunately, given the sustained level of losses, the directors had no option but to appoint administrators to protect the creditors of the Company.

“Sadly, this has resulted in 77 redundancies having to be made today.

“We will do all we can to support workers impacted by the administration.

"From today, the company’s 15 stores and the website will cease to trade and no further orders will be taken.

“One store, 204-208 Tottenham Court Road, will continue to trade for up to 14 days in order to sell through the floor stock.

“However, I’m pleased that we have been able to sell the order book, ensuring that customers will receive their outstanding orders.”

PwC added it wasn’t able to provide further information regarding customer orders or deposits.

However, it said customers would be contacted directly by the group as soon as possible to provide a further update on the status of their orders.