Value fashion retailer Bonmarche has collapsed into administration, putting almost 2,900 jobs at risk.<\/p>\n
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The retailer has become the latest victim of the high street downturn after a \u201csustained period of challenging trading conditions\u201d<\/strong>, administrators said.<\/p>\n The womenswear retailer employs 2,887 staff, including 200 at its head office, and operates 318 stores across the UK<\/strong>.<\/p>\n Tony Wright, Alastair Massey and Phil Pierce, of specialist advisory firm FRP, were appointed as joint administrators for the firm on Friday.<\/strong><\/p>\n FRP said the company will continue to trade with no immediate job losses,<\/strong> as it assesses options to secure the future of the company.<\/p>\n Wright said: \u201cBonmarche has been a staple on the UK high street for nearly three decades, but the persistent challenges facing retail have taken their toll<\/strong> and led to the administration.<\/p>\n \u201cThere is every sign that we can continue trading<\/strong> while we market Bonmarche for sale and believe that there will be interest to take on the business.\u201d<\/p>\n The administrators added that \u201call stores remain open and no redundancies have been made<\/strong>\u201d.<\/p>\n The brand has recently struggled with rising costs, such as business rates and rising wages, as well as dwindling footfall on UK high streets.<\/p>\n It is the second time the business has fallen into administration in seven years,<\/strong> after it was previously bought in a rescue deal by private equity firm Sun European Partners in 2012.<\/p>\n The company was later floated on the London stock exchange before retail tycoon Philip Day purchased a majority stake earlier this year.<\/strong><\/p>\n A large number of shareholders then sold their stakes to Day, giving him a 95% ownership in the struggling retailer.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":68,"featured_media":151535,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[12454,4080],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n