Jones Bootmaker to reveal new boss ‘in coming days’

Endless only acquired Jones in a pre-pack administration deal last Friday – taking on 72 of its stores and saving 840 jobs – but the turnaround specialist has moved quickly to shore up its leadership team.

The private equity firm has also ploughed £10m of investment into the footwear business as it targets a transformation based around improving its product ranges, revamping stores and refining its ecommerce proposition.

Under previous owners Alteri, David Riddiford had headed up both Jones and former stablemate Brantano as executive chairman.

But that role was effectively made defunct when the two footwear chains were split and Riddiford left the role.

Endless founder Garry Wilson told Retail Week: “We are close to recruiting a couple of key people into the management team.

“When we arrived there wasn’t a chief exec in the business, there wasn’t a permanent CFO in the business.

“We need to go and recruit those people pretty quickly. You will hear about who that is shortly.

“We’ll be ready to announce that in the coming days.”

Big investment

Wilson added that Endless’s plans to return Jones to profitability in its second year of ownership “can’t be done on a shoestring” and revealed it has already ploughed investment into strengthening its balance sheet.

“On top of what we’ve paid, there will be £10m-plus of cash injected into the business to stabilise it,” he said.

“That money is already there, it’s been immediately invested. The business today has got a very healthy bank balance.

“There will be a loss of confidence amongst suppliers and we need to – and we have – given the business enough money to make sure it can operate, get its stock in on time, satisfy agreed arrangements with suppliers and make people realise that Jones is financially stable again.”