John Kinnaird has said that he paid a seven-figure sum to buy Envy out of pre-pack administration, which he claims he was forced to do to renegotiate terms on loss-making stores.
Last week BDO Stoy Hayward was appointed as administrator to Envy’s parent company Style Menswear. It was sold on to a new company set up by Kinnaird called Envy Retail.
All of Envy’s 52 shops are still trading and Kinnaird said that they will continue to trade. About 15 are still loss making but Kinnaird said he would keep them open if favourable enough deals can be agreed with landlords.
He said: “Now that we have no leases we can start having constructive conversations with landlords.”
Pre-pack administrations have caused anger among some retailers because often they mean responsibility for paying rent on stores that have been assigned to the struggling business reverts to the original tenant.
Some rival retailers still find themselves paying rent for stores operated by Faith, which Kinnaird also part owns, and fear that they could end up in a similar situation with Envy.
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