The stricken department store chain Beales is to close more than half its shops in the latest blow to the UK’s struggling high streets.
The Bournemouth-based retailer collapsed into administration last month, and on Friday it was announced that 12 of its 23 stores would close.
The company, which began trading in Bournemouth in 1881, has about 1,300 employees.
KPMG, the advisory firm handling the administration, said it was in active discussions with interested parties but there was no buyer for the whole chain.
As a result, it was drafting a closure plan for a dozen stores, which would affect about 500 staff. The units on the list include Beales’ flagship store in Bournemouth.
The administrators said stores earmarked for closure would continue to trade, with closing-down sales for about eight weeks. Staff would be retained to help with trading over the coming weeks, KPMG said.
Beales is the latest victim of the high street downturn that has forced a wave of closures. Its rivals Debenhams and House of Fraser have undergone an emergency financial restructuring, while in recent weeks Mothercare and the toy chain Hawkins Bazaar have closed their UK stores.
Beales was opened by John Elmes Beale under the name Fancy Fair and Oriental House, selling products and novelties that reflected the growing enthusiasm for Chinese and Japanese design.
The original store was bombed in the second world war but rebuilt on the same site on Old Christchurch Road, Bournemouth.
In the 1990s, the chain floated on the stock exchange before returning to private ownership. It expanded to 23 department stores, from the Lake District to Norfolk and the home counties, selling furniture, fashion, toys and cosmetics. However, in December the business put itself up for sale, warning it faced “exceptionally challenging times”.
KPMG said there were no plans to close the remaining 11 stores. They would “continue to operate as usual until an outcome with regards to a sale of the business is clarified”, the administrators said.
The Beales stores that are closing …
Bournemouth
Hexham
Worthing
Tonbridge
Peterborough
Mansfield
Keighley
Perth
Spalding
Wisbech
Bedford
Yeovil
