Toys R Us lines up administrator
Up to 3,200 jobs are at risk with the UK Toys R Us shops chain expected to enter administration this week after last ditch talks to find a buyer faltered.
Members of the Toys R Us management team met with officials from the Pension Protection Fund on Friday to notify them of its intentions.
In December it looked to have staved off the threat of administration after a key creditor agreed to a restructuring plan that would secure around 2,500 jobs.
The beleaguered retailer’s proposal for a company voluntary arrangement was voted through after it obtained the backing of the PPF.
It would have seen at least 26 loss-making UK stores shut as part of a restructuring and the loss of up to 800 jobs. The deal would have saved branches at Birchley Island in Oldbury, at Merry Hill and in Stafford. Sites at Shrewsbury and at St Andrews in Birmingham would have closed.
The turnaround plan was torn up after poor trading continued into the new year.
Going into administration will put all 3,200 jobs at risk at its 84 UK stores and 21 concessions and follows a recent decision by its bankrupt American parent to try to sell the loss-making UK business as well its other European stores. It is closing hundred of US stores.
Toys R Us had been trying to find a buyer before the end of this month when several payments fall due, including a £15 million VAT bill.
The UK chain has been struggling with shoppers buying online and from supermarkets instead of is large out-of-town sites.
Moorfields, which helped work on the administration of Blockbuster, is thought to have been put on standby to oversee a potential insolvency of Toys R Us.
