Calvetron Brands enters administration
Calvetron Brands, the owner of Jacques Vert, Dash, Precis and Eastex, has appointed Duff & Phelps as administrators.
The news come less than a year after Style Group Brands, as it was previously known, was sold via a pre-pack deal to Calvetron.
Peter Ridler, chief executive of Calvetron Brands, said: “Everyone at Calvetron Brands has worked with energy and determination to achieve the turnaround that was needed; however, a combination of four brands that needed time and investment, against a backdrop of extremely difficult trading conditions on the high street, rising costs and low customer confidence has meant that we haven’t been able to achieve this within the timescales required.”
Calvetron is understood to have been carrying a number of legacy issues dating back to the acquisition of SGBL. This resulted in a high cost base relative to its turnover.
Philip Duffy of Duff & Phelps added: “In the difficult retail environment we are facing today CBL simply could not restructure its cost base quickly enough or create the necessary economies of scale to succeed.”
The business was originally founded in 1972 by Jack Cynamon and Alan Green who were tailors from the East End of London. The group now employs 1,000 people in the UK and a further 500 in Canada and Ireland and has around 300 store concessions.
The administrators are continuing to trade the company while reviewing options to sell the it as a going concern.
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