A discount furniture retailer, established in 1967, has entered administration, putting nearly 1,200 jobs at risk. The Original Factory Shop, which sells products including clothing and homeware, appointed administrators from Interpath Advisory last month.
The retailer operates 137 shops offering clothing, homewares, beauty products, toys, and seasonal items. While all physical stores will continue trading as a going concern during the assessment of options. The retailer has now shut down its online operations as its future remains up in the air.
Interpath highlighted that high cost inflation, weak consumer confidence, and logistical issues with a third-party warehouse significantly affected sales.
The Original Factory Shop’s troubles have been driven by challenging trading conditions, linked to high cost inflation, fragile consumer confidence and rising labour costs caused by government policies, according to administrators.
Problems were then said to have been exacerbated by issues linked to its third-party warehouse and logistics operator, weakening sales further.
Rick Harrison, managing director at Interpath and joint administrator, said: “The Original Factory Shop has long-been a cornerstone of local high streets up and down the country.
“Unfortunately, however, trading challenges have impacted the business such that the company had to be placed into administration.
“Over the coming weeks, we will be working closely with TOFS dedicated team of employees as we endeavour to operate all stores as a going concern while we assess options for the business.”
Administrators Interpath said the chain’s 40 stores across the UK and seven concessions in Ireland will continue to trade while they look at options for the firm but its website will shut.
They said 109 redundancies are being made across the firm’s head office in Glasgow and its warehouse and distribution centre in Bellshill, Lanarkshire.
Interpath confirmed that Quiz concessions in New Look and Matalan stores in the UK are not included in the administration and remain unaffected.
Quiz employs 565 workers in total.