Menswear specialist Greenwoods enters into administration

London - Menswear and formal hire label Greenwoods has entered into administration. The Bradford-based retailer, which employs more than 300 people, has appointed Deloitte as its administrators, raising concerns for the future of the company.

Adrian Berry and Clare Boardman from Deloitte have been appointed as joint administrators of the business. At the moment of administration, Greenwoods operated 63 stores and two concessions across the UK, generating 20 million pounds in turnover annually. Greenwoods currently employs a total of 318 employees, including 292 members of store staff, 11 warehouse workers and 15 head office employees. The stores are set to continue trading as normal, as Berry and Boardman assess options for the future of the business. Greenwoods website has already been ceased trading, however, as has its Twitter handle.< /p>

"We are currently assessing the options available to the company, including a potential sale of the business, and are continuing to trade it in the meantime,” said Berry, as the administrator seek out a potential buyer for the business. "No redundancies are being announced at this stage and we are grateful to the employees for their support at this difficult time. This is a challenging time for the UK retail sector, which has affected the company."

The menswear specialist, which first started out as a hat shop in 1860, counted as many as 200 stores in the 1990s. However, Greenwoods struggled to remain afloat later on in the 2000s and previously entered into administration 2009. At the time a Hong-Kong based investor acquired 87 of the 92 stores. Later on Greenwoods parent company was acquired by Fastspeed Investments, before being sold to Chinese down apparel manufacturer Bosideng International Holdings subsidiary in 2013 for 6.5 million US dollars.

Photo: By Mtaylor848 (Own work) [CC BY-SA 3.0 ( http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons