The EWM Group, which owns British fashion chains Peacocks and Jaeger, recently said it has failed to find a buyer for the troubled businesses that are badly hit by the novel coronavirus pandemic. The two chains have been put into a form of bankruptcy protection after a two-week deadline to find a buyer passed. Around 5,000 jobs are at risk.

In the second lockdown in the United Kingdom that will continue till December 2, all shops selling items deemed as non-essential, such as clothes and books, have been required to close.

As a result, the company could no longer extend a so-called standstill arrangement that the high court first imposed six weeks ago and allows the chains to carry on doing business, a spokesperson was quoted as saying by British media reports.

“Therefore, as directors, we have taken the desperately difficult decision to place Peacocks and Jaeger into administration while those talks continue," the spokesperson said.

The administrators put in charge of the chains remain hopeful that a deal can be secured.

Cardiff-based Peacocks operates 423 stores with 4,369 staff, while Jaeger runs 76 stores and concessions and employs 347. The administrators said no redundancies or store closures have been confirmed yet.

EWM Group had already placed its Edinburgh Woollen Mill and Ponden Home businesses into administration earlier this month.

Fibre2Fashion News Desk (DS)

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