UK’s BHS goes into administration

ELEVEN thousand UK jobs are at risk after BHS has admitted it is going into administration. 

When asked on the current state of affairs for BHS, a spokesman for the high street chain said: “Yes, the process has started.”

With a large BHS located in Gibraltar, it is not known what the consequences will be concerning the store and potential job losses on the rock. 

This latest collapse of a corporate giant could potentially be the biggest business failure since Woolworth’s went into administration back on 2008 where almost 30,000 jobs were lost. 

Last year BHS was bought from Sir Philip Green for the grand total of £1 after a consortium of financiers agreed to take on the company that, at the time, had more than £1.3bn worth of debts, including a pension fund deficit of £571m.

There are rumours that Sports Direct has been in talks over purchasing some of the BHS stores but currently they are not in a position to take on the company’s pension deficit. With Sir Philip reportedly having offered £80m towards the pension fund, it is thought there could be more associated costs. 

Current owner of BHS, Mr Chappell stated at a press conference: “No one is to blame; it was a combination of bad trading and not being able to raise enough money from the property portfolio.

“In the end, we just couldn’t reach an agreement with Arcadia over pensions.”

He will continue to work with the administrators Duff & Phelps to “find a solution post the administration,” he continued. 

Experts in the retail field have commented that the retail giant has suffered from years of under investment, leaving the range looking tired and out of date.