TJ Hughes flagship store saved from closure
By Jon Whiteaker - 04:17PM - Mon 1st August 2011
Around 450 retail jobs have been saved today, with the acquisition of four TJ Hughes stores by the non-food specialist Lewis’s Home Retail Limited.
Joint administrators Tom Jack and Simon Allport of professional services firm Ernst & Young confirmed that the business and assets of the outlets, which include the flagship TJ Hughes store on London Road in Liverpool, have been bought with all current employees expected to retain their positions.
The other stores to be saved from closure are the ones in Eastbourne, Glasgow and Sheffield, all of which will be rebranded as Lewis’s Home Retail.
Jack commented: “We are delighted to have exchanged contracts on this deal, which saves 442 jobs and continues the TJ Hughes legacy in Liverpool, as well as in other locations across the UK.”
Lewis’s Home Retail is associated with online retail firm Benross Group which, like TJ Hughes, is based in Liverpool.
Last month TJ Hughes’s distribution centre in the north-west was closed by its administrators costing 100 jobs, as it became clear that the 57-store failed business was likely to be split up.
Recent weeks have also seen huge clearance sales conducted across the TJ Hughes store portfolio with discounts of up to 50 per cent available to customers.