Member Article

High street administrations increase at start of year

Statistics from the Insolvency Service show a massive increase in the number of retailers that went into administration during the first quarter of this year.

The high street experienced a 180% increase in insolvencies, with 24 appointments in Q4 2011, to 67 in Q1 2012.

Administration appointments were also up by 18% from Q4 2011 to Q1 2012, as the overall retail sector saw an increase, up around 9% compared with the same period last year.

Mark Firmin, KPMG’s Northern Head of Restructuring, commented: “Today’s national figures are the culmination of a barrage of negative economic pressures thrown at the retails sector in the past few years.

“The North East’s High Streets have been impacted by the wave of high profile retail administration appointments in the first days of 2012 – not least Peacocks, La Senza and Blacks.

“These latest statistics show that the New Year pain extended beyond a small number of well known brands.

“Unfortunately we do not think today’s data is evidence of the traditional seasonal increase in retail failures.

“Our own pipeline of work suggests the High Street and the many companies which service the retail industry are running out of options.”

Elsewhere, the manufacturing sector saw an increase of 34% in administration appointments, but appointments decreased compared with the same period last year.

The hotel and transport sectors saw a decrease of 50% and 24% respectively, also with drops in appointments compared with the same period last year.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Tom Keighley .