Physique Store Public sale: What It Means For Retailer Closures 

Directors of the UK’s largest vegan magnificence chain, The Physique Store have confirmed they’ll put the retailer up for public sale after it turned the newest excessive avenue model to enter administration in mid-February.

The model’s management had hoped that the corporate would be capable to proceed underneath a restructuring plan. However directors at FRP Advisory, which has been overseeing The Physique Store since its collapse, confirmed this week that this is able to not be viable.

The Physique Store was first based in 1976 by the late Dame Anita Roddick and her husband Gordon, who offered it to L’Oreal in 2006. It has modified fingers 4 occasions since then. 

Most just lately, it was offered to the funding agency Aurelius for simply over £200m in 2023. This low worth was as a result of a harsh retail panorama that has seen The Physique Store dwindle from roughly 3,000 shops throughout 66 international locations in 2017, to roughly 100 UK shops in the present day.

Why is The Physique Store being auctioned off?

An public sale was not the primary alternative for FRP Advisory. The agency had reportedly been making an attempt to succeed in a Firm Voluntary Settlement (CVA) with The Physique Store. 

Put merely, a CVA is actually a reimbursement plan for corporations dealing with insolvency and their collectors, or these it owes cash to, to restructure its debt.

Nevertheless, FRP Advisory has been unable to succeed in a CVA. This means the model is in a extreme monetary scenario that collectors don’t imagine it will probably get well from. 

That is supported by the directors’ report, during which Aurelius refers to The Physique Store’s “short-term money place [which] was hostile to that that had been forecast, pushed by poor ends in the 2023 monetary 12 months and the unwinding of the corporate’s working capital”.

By auctioning off the model, Aurelius can try and recoup a few of the chain’s worth. This can contain promoting off key property – in The Physique Store’s case, meaning its prime retail actual property, with shops throughout lots of the UK’s largest cities and cities.

The public sale gained’t be like your typical Money In The Attic episode, nonetheless. The Physique Store’s monetary worries apart, the company’s price ticket will nonetheless be within the hundreds of thousands. 

Different big-name manufacturers which were auctioned off embrace Jimmy Choo, which was offered to the US vogue model Michael Kors in 2017 for £900m.

What does this imply for The Physique Store shops?

Based on Sky Information, directors are hoping to shut the sale of The Physique Store shops this summer time. The public sale may lead to extra retailer closures for the model, which has virtually halved its retail presence because it went into administration in February.

The chain has offered off round 98 UK shops up to now this 12 months, together with the corporate’s flagship retailer on Oxford Avenue in central London. Total, the closures led to round 489 job losses.

There are at the moment no plans to shut the remaining 100 shops. Nevertheless, their future will rely upon how the public sale is formatted.

If the successful bidder buys your entire retail chain, the remaining outlets will possible stay open, pending any choices by the brand new homeowners. Nevertheless, if the shops are offered off individually, together with their stock and fixtures, this is able to in all probability lead to them being rebranded.

Given in the present day’s dire excessive avenue, with footfall falling, there may be additionally a danger that no bidders will categorical curiosity. On this unlucky state of affairs, the shops would possible be closed completely.

Who will purchase The Physique Store?

The Physique Store has constructed up a loyal following because of its firm values that rejected animal testing, a progressive stance throughout the Seventies and 80s. It has additionally cemented itself as an environmentally-friendly vendor. 

Followers will now be eagerly ready for information {that a} bid has been accepted. Among the many events which have expressed curiosity in shopping for The Physique Store is the foremost division retailer, Subsequent.

FRP has expressed optimism it should discover a purchaser, stating it has been “inspired by the extent of curiosity acquired up to now from events” in a assertion given final week. 

“The Physique Store stays an iconic model and following the structural modifications we’ve got made to the enterprise since our appointment we think about it has a viable future,” it added. “This will likely be showcased to potential acquirers throughout the sale course of.”