60 Shropshire jobs at risk in Budgens stores crisis
More than 60 jobs are under threat after a supermarket business with stores in Shropshire collapsed into administration.
Budgens stores in Newport and Ludlow are under threat – although another branch in Bridgnorth is safe.
Food Retailer Operations Limited, which operates a number of Budgens supermarkets under licence from the retailer, runs 34 stores across the UK, employing 872 staff.
Among those are the branches in Newport and Ludlow, which employ 30 and 32 people respectively.
Now the company has fallen into administration, blaming "difficult trading conditions" since the company acquired the stores from Co-op in July last year.
The stores in High Street, Newport, and Ludlow's Upper Galdeford are still trading as work continues to find a buyer.
The appointment of administrators Michael Denny, Robert Moran and Matthew Hammond of PwC comes despite efforts to make the business more commercially viable. Mike Denny, joint administrator, PwC, said today: "The company has faced significant pricing pressures, intense competition and structural change.
"We are continuing to trade all 34 stores, whilst engaging with interested parties for the sites and the other leasehold interests of the company. We will work closely with the employees over the coming weeks."
It also holds leaseholds on another 36 stores which are not currently trading, two non-trading properties, and the head office of the former Somerfield supermarket chain.
The company's collapse does not affect other stores in the Budgens chain, including Shropshire's other outlet in Bridgnorth, as these are not operated by Food Retailer Operations.
Others affected include a number of stores in Wales, including in Aberystwyth and Monmouth, as well as at Weoley Castle in Birmingham.
The company had attempted to address its problems last month when it put together a creditors' voluntary arrangement, which allows struggling companies to restructure their debts with the consent of their creditors.
That had been expected to lead to the closure of a number of stores, including in Ludlow.
But the administration is likely to see that arrangement replaced, and puts the larger estate at risk of closure including the Newport branch of Budgens.
