Iconic London department store the General Trading Company, which has three royal warrants including one from the Queen, was set to hit the buffers as Retail Week went to press.
Meanwhile, knitwear retailer Jumper was also understood to be on the brink of administration.
Without last-minute emergency refinancing both retailers faced administration this week, according to sources.
The two retailers are the latest to be hit by shattered consumer confidence. Most recently, furniture retailers Ilva, ScS and homewares chain ProCook fell into administration.
Speculation also surrounds the future of furniture giant MFI, which this week called in restructuring expert Kroll Talbot Hughes but denied it had restructuring issues.
The General Trading Company was founded in 1920 by the Part Family and opened on Grantham Place off Park Lane in London. In 1962, it moved to Sloane Street before moving to Symons Street in 2000. This time last year, it closed its Cirencester store. In the year to April 30, 2007, it made a loss of£21,049.
Lancashire-based Jumper operates 40 stores in the Northwest and 40 concessions in Ireland. In the year to March 31, 2007, turnover slipped to£7 million, from£9.9 million the year before. Losses before tax widened to£1.5 million from£255,720 the year before.
Jumper is owned by Brian Heilbron, former Beatties chief executive and ex-managing director of Talbots UK. It was sold to Heilbron in August last year by Waterlinks Investments, a subsidiary of Harris Watson, one time owners of Viyella and the Sock Shop – the latter of which went into administration in January 2006.
Prior to that, Jumper was part of the Tulchan group – owned by then chairman of Leeds United, Peter Ridsdale.
Neither General Trading Company or Jumper was available for comment as Retail Week went to press.
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