Iconic London department store the General Trading Company has gone into administration, as predicted in this week’s Retail Week (July 18).

MCR Partners’ Philip Duffy, Jason Godefroy and Paul Clark have been appointed joint administrators.

General Trading Company, which has three royal warrants including one from the Queen, hit the buffers this afternoon.

Duffy said: “This is a world famous department store with a strong and loyal customer base. It is too early to determine the reasons why the company that operates the store has gone into administration and we are concentrating on saving the business and selling the store as a going concern, thus saving a piece of history as well as the employment of those working there. We are confident that there will be a significant amount of interest.”

The joint administrators are running the business as normal and anticipate a going concern sale “very shortly”.

Meanwhile, the future of flooring specialist Floors-2-Go remains unclear after it called in restructuring firm Kroll.

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