Internaçionale UK enters administration

Fashion retailer Internaçionale UK Limited has officially entered administration for the second time in less than nine months, putting 1,000 jobs at risk. This announcement follows ongoing speculation circulating that if a buyer was not found within weeks, all 89 stores

across the country would be shut down, putting Internaçionale's 1,000 man staff out of a job.

Bruce Cartwright, Toby Underwood and Lyn Vardy from accountancy firm PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC,) have been appointed joint administrators of Internaçionale today.

In

a press release published today, PwC indicated that the owners of the women's wear retailers “engaged advisers to produce a turnaround and contingency plan intended to secure support for the business until late March, when the company’s ongoing viability would be reassessed”. To keep provisional costs down, 90 redundancies were recently made, mainly at the company's head office.

Internaçionale enters administration ahead of schedule

Despite corporate restructuring specialist FC Fund Managers, led by former city trader Jason Granite, taking control of Internaçionale earlier this month after purchasing 35 million pounds of debt, shareholders choose to enter administration ahead of plan.

PwC indicates that this was mainly “due to continued poor trading and increasing creditor pressure, the shareholders have decided they can no longer support the business and have taken the difficult decision to wind down the business through administration”.

Bruce Cartwright, joint administrator and partner at PwC said: “The company directors have worked with key stakeholders to try and find a solution to preserve the business. However, these efforts have proved to be unsuccessful against the backdrop of a fiercely competitive retail sector which, despite the improving economic conditions, can be unforgiving to businesses in financial distress.”

"Orderly wind-down" of Internaçionale to take place

He added that PwC was currently working alongside with Internaçionale's management to schedule an “orderly wind-down” of the company, but are open to any interested parties approaching to purchases components of the store portfolio and safeguard jobs.

“We intend to continue to trade over the coming weeks in order to sell as much of the retail stock as possible and maximise the return to creditors. Staff have been - and will continue to be - paid for their work.”

“Unfortunately, unless a willing purchaser for the business or store portfolio is forthcoming, it is inevitable that redundancies and store closures will become necessary as the administration process continues. The company and the administrators are making every effort to help staff through this difficult transition,” concluded Cartwright.

Internaçionale's website has been taken temporarily offline following the announcement, with a sign from Venda reading, “We are currently upgrading this site. Full service will be restored shortly. Sorry for any inconvenience.”