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Tuesday July 22nd 2008

MCR Appointed administrators For The General Trading Company

MCR has announced that The General Trading Company (Mayfair) Limited was placed into administration yesterday.

Philip Duffy, Jason Godefroy and Paul Clark, partners at MCR, have been appointed as joint administrators.

The Company runs the department store by the same name in fashionable Sloane Square, which has a number of Royal Warrants. More recently it was famous for running the wedding list for Prince Charles and Camilla Parker-Bowles.

Founded by the Part family in 1920, the General Trading Company was one of London's first 'boutique' home stores focusing on soft furnishings, interior décor, chinaware and glassware as well as clothing and accessories. It rapidly became highly fashionable as well as gaining Royal patronage. It was one of the first stores in the UK to develop the concept of the 'Wedding List' now a traditional part of any marriage.

Philip Duffy, Partner, MCR commented: “This is a world famous department store with a strong and loyal customer base. It is too early to determine the reasons why the Company which operates the store has gone into Administration and we are concentrating on saving the business and selling the store as a going concern thus saving a piece of history as well as the employment of those working there. We are confident that there will be a significant amount of interest."

The store was synonymous with the 'Swinging Sixties', with a fashionably smart site it moved to on Sloane Street from where it began to make a name for itself. Over the 1960's and 1970's the store grew and expanded overseas. At the same time it also expanded in the UK opening a store in Cirencester, subsequently closed in 2007.

The joint administrators are trading the business as normal and anticipate that they will secure a going concern sale very shortly.

Tagged as: general trading company

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