Select clothing store in Rochdale to remain open

Women’s fashion retailer Select opening new store in the Wheatsheaf Shopping Centre

Proposals for the Company Voluntary Arrangement (CVA) for high street fashion chain Genus UK Ltd, trading as Select, were approved by 87 per cent of its creditors at a meeting in Central London on Wednesday 12 June.

There has been a Select store in the Wheatsheaf Centre, Rochdale since July 2014 and administrators have confirmed that the CVA means this store will remain open, along with all the other Select stores.

The company previously fell into administration on 9 May 2019. Following this, joint administrators, Andrew Andronikou, Brian Burke and Carl Jackson of business advisory firm Quantuma, filed CVA proposals in the High Court of Justice on 24 May 2019.

The company trades as a value ladies’ fashion retailer, targeting 18 to 35-year olds with up to 4,000 fashion products. The approval secures the current employment of Select’s 1,800 staff and preserves the operation of its 169 stores, centralised head office and warehouse facilities.

Andrew Andronikou, joint administrator, said: “The approval of the joint administrator’s proposals gives the best outcome for creditors as a whole. This will mean no immediate closures of the company’s stores, and no immediate redundancies.

“This should provide a platform upon which the company can deliver changes to its operational costs and structures, allowing it to stabilise and move forwards. As widely reported, there are many challenges in the UK retail sector, a factor which has adversely affected the high street. We are therefore pleased with the outcome of today’s meeting and the support displayed by creditors in their acceptance of the proposal, which has resulted in the rescue of the business.”