500 jobs lost as joint administrators of fashion house Calvetron Brands close remaining concessions

The remaining Jacques Vert and Precis concessions in the UK, Republic of Ireland and Canada, are now set to close.

Benjamin Wiles, Trevor Birch and Philip Duffy of Duff & Phelps, joint administrators of Calvetron Brands Limited (CBL) have today announced they are serving notice to after a rescue deal was not secured.

This will result in a total of around 500 retail redundancies, which are effective upon the closure of the individual concessions and follow the announcement in June of 102 concessions earmarked for closure affecting 445 employees.

An additional 90 jobs will be affected in the global head office and distribution centre where a small number of staff will be retained in the short term. A further 250 roles are affected in Canada.

Headquartered in London, Calvetron Brands had employed a total of 1,408 people – 997 in the UK, 155 in Ireland and 256 in Canada.

Benjamin Wiles, joint administrator, stated: “Following our appointment on 4 May 2018, the joint administrators have continued to trade the business, allowing a period of time for us to market the business and assets for sale as a going concern.

“We have explored a number of potential options, however no viable offers for the business as a going concern have been received. As such we are now having to close the remaining concessions here in the UK and Ireland as well as Canada and move to trade-out the stock.”

Jack Cynamon and Alan Green, two tailors from the East End of London, originally founded the business in 1972. In 1977 they created a range of coordinated fashion, combined their names and added a French twist, creating the Jacques Vert brand.

The company expanded into a multi-branded fashion retailing group in December 2002 with the acquisition of William Baird Plc.

Jacques Vert merged with the Irisa group to become the Jacques Vert Group Ltd in 2012 and in June 2016 the company changed its name to Style Group Brands Limited (SGBL). In June 2017 SGBL went into administration and was sold via a pre-pack to CBL.

Benjamin added: “We have today served notice of the termination of the remaining concessions and retail staff have been advised. We are retaining a number of head office staff for between two to four months to assist with the trade-out.

“Calvetron Brands has faced the perfect storm of extremely difficult trading conditions on the high street, rising costs and low customer confidence all of which hindered our ability to secure a buyer.”