Thresher owner goes into administration

Published: 29 October, 2009

First Quench Retailing, owners of Thresher and Wine Rack, has confimed it is going into administration.

Following months of speculation about the future of the business, which has been incurring huge losses, the FQR board has appointed KPMG as administrator.

A spokesperson for FQR said: "The Board's discussions with KPMG confirm that the best prospects for the business is a sale as a going concern thereby preserving as many jobs as possible.

"It is with great regret that the Board was not able to brief our colleagues prior to it being made public in the media. This was always our intention but, unfortunately, the news leaked. There is a full programme of communication which will commence from Friday morning to our colleagues.

"The administrators have confirmed that they will be seeking to operate the business as normal whilst seeking a sale as a going concern and this will include meeting next week's payroll."

Options for the company include selling it as a going concern in a so-called pre-packaged to a secured buyer, with non-executive chairman John Cleland said to be one of the interested parties.

The off-licence chain, which operates more than 1,000 stores across the Thresher, Wine Rack, The Local and Haddows formats and employs around 6,500 people, has been telling suppliers that unpaid bills will be honoured.

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