Philip Day in late bid to avoid Jack Wills administration

With a deal for the embattled retailer expected to be completed at some point today, Day has put a bid in for Jack Wills seeking to avoid it falling into a pre-pack administration, PA has reported. However, a source close to the retailer has refuted the story. 

Day is locked in a struggle with Sports Direct tycoon Mike Ashley, who over the weekend was reportedly in pole position to snap up the struggling Jack Wills brand.

However, any deal involving Ashley would involve allowing the retailer sliding into a pre-pack administration – an insolvency process that would allow for the brand to be sold on debt-free.

A source said Edinburgh Woollen Mill Group was “worried” that Jack Wills’ financial advisers KPMG would “stick it into administration when they’ve told them pretty specifically that it doesn’t need to go into administration”.

PA reported that if successful in his bid, Day would seek to “install either himself or an ally as executive chair” of Jack Wills and provide £12m in capital upfront to cover costs.

He is also looking to buy the company’s debt and would not consider any restructuring for the first month of ownership. Day sees synergies between Jack Wills and his Jaeger brand, which he bought out of administration in 2017.

A source closed to the process said they “wouldn’t be surprised if Jack Wills has already been sold and it wasn’t to” Edinburgh Woollen Mill Group, but insisted that the bid had been genuine. 

Jack Wills employs around 1,800 staff and trades from 110-strong store estate.

The struggling retailer made a pre-tax loss of £29.3m on revenues of £139.5m in its last reported year to January 31, 2018, and joins a long list of retailers which have struggled in the first half of the year.

A source close to the sale process said that a deal was likely to be completed one way or another today.