East Anglia: 4,000 jobs at risk as Focus DIY reveals administration plans
NEARLY 4,000 jobs, including dozens in East Anglia, are at risk under after struggling home improvements and garden centres chain Focus DIY revealed plans go into administration.
Focus, which employs more than 3,900 staff at 178 stores across the country, has been in discussions with its banks for several weeks and has also been linked with a buy-out by restructuring specialist GA Europe.
But today the company disclosed that it had asked accountants Ernst & Young to act as administrator, saying it had no alternative after it defaulted on a credit facility.
In a statement, Focus said: “Following notification of an event of default under the senior credit facility, and a realisation that there were no alternatives that could be explored any further, Focus directors have come to the conclusion that to protect the interests of creditors they have no choice but to seek protection through filing a notice of intention to appoint administrators.”
The company’s stores are expected to trade as normal until administrators are officially appointed, a process which could take several days, but the long-term employment prospects of staff will depend on a buyer, or buyers, being found to take on its stores.
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Focus has already closed a branch on the Orwell Retail Park in Ipswich this year, with the loss of 17 jobs, after deciding not to renew its lease on the store which it said was trading at a loss.
More jobs will be under threat at its remaining stores in the region, at locations including Sudbury, Haverhill, Lowestoft, Beccles, Maldon and Thetford.
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Focus, which is up against competition from larger rivals B&Q, part of the Kingfisher group, and Homebase, owned by the Home Retail Group which also includes Argos, is currently owned by private equity firm Cerberus.
It acquired Focus, including a �174million debt mountain, in 2007 for just �1 and in 2009 the chain avoided administration by agreeing a Company Voluntary Arrangement with the landlords of closed stores, under which they waived their rent entitlements in return for two special dividend payments.
Focus expanded rapidly during the 1990s through a series of acquisitions including Wickes, which was later sold on to Travis Perkins, Do It All and Great Mills.
