BHS to continue trading ‘for the summer’ in an effort to shift stock

It is understood that the department store chain, which collapsed into administration in April after seven consecutive years of losses, will seek to shift its seasonal stock before operations are brought to an end.

Administrators revealed at the start of this month that the business would be wound down after it failed to find a rescue bidder.

But creditors were told at a meeting in London today that BHS will continue trading for “the next couple of months.”

A source who attended the meeting told Retail Week: “They are going to basically carry on trading for the summer, the next couple of months.

“They are just going to sell the stock they have, but are not obviously ordering next season stock.”

The Pension Protection Fund, which has become one of BHS’s biggest creditors after the chain collapsed with a £571m pension deficit, voted against the creation of a creditors’ committee and has started proceedings to draft in a second administrator, FRP Advisory, to work alongside Duff & Phelps.

Hilco Capital has also been appointed to assist in “extending the viable trading period of the store network in order to allow administrators the opportunity to realise maximum returns for creditors.”

Retail Week understands that liquidators are also reviewing a number of asset sales that were made by BHS in the run up to the insolvency.

Sources said that a number of deals to offload stores, including BHS’s Oxford Street flagship, will be looked into and could potentially be scrapped or re-negotiated.