<\/p>\n
TG Jones will be cutting back (pic: DB Media Services)<\/p>\n
A court has approved a restructuring of TG Jones, WH Smith\u2019s former High Street business, which will see up to 150 shops close as well as steep rent cuts for most of the remaining stores.<\/p>\n
Modella Capital bought the 451-store chain last year, rebranding the famous old stationery business under the invented new name.<\/p>\n
WH Smith travel stores, mainly in railway stations and airports, were not part of the deal and the business kept the rights to the historic brand.<\/p>\n
Some retail analysts say the TG Jones name has failed to appeal to shoppers, though Modella blamed challenging retail conditions for poor trading and the need for a radical restructuring plan. <\/p>\n
It told the high court that it had a cash shortfall of \u00a38m and without drastic action it would struggle to avoid insolvency.<\/p>\n
As well as store closures, about 120 landlords will receive no rent for up to three years; and rent will be cut on hundreds of other stores by between 15% and 75%. <\/p>\n
Tom Smith KC, for TG Jones, told the hearing that the business would have run out of cash in April had it not been for a \u00a310m loan from Modella and a deferral in liabilities including a large tax bill from HMRC.<\/p>\n
Modella also blamed its problems on serious underinvestment by the chain\u2019s previous owners.<\/p>\n
Property owner British Land led opposition to the restructuring plan, describing it as \u201cfundamentally unfair\u201d, though it was persuaded to accept the terms after Modella offered a number of concessions.<\/p>\n
Once the plan is complete, TG Jones will have 302 stores depending on how many landlords exercise their rights to terminate the lease instead of accepting reduced rents.<\/p>\n
\t #Jones #close #stores #shakeup #Daily #Business<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
TG Jones will be cutting back (pic: DB Media Services) A court has approved a…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[7],"tags":[272,1419,306,4094,7913,1726,16066,14334],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stock999.top\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10073"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stock999.top\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stock999.top\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stock999.top\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stock999.top\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=10073"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/stock999.top\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10073\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stock999.top\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10073"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stock999.top\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10073"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stock999.top\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10073"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}