Fashion accessories chain Claire’s is considering closing a number of its UK stores as the high street firm show signs of being the latest company in financial difficulty.
According to the Press Association, the company is thought to be talking to a number of restructuring firms about its options, one of which is thought to include a Company Voluntary Arrangement (CVA).
According to the most recent accounts the chain has more than 370 stores in the UK and should the firm move forward with restructuring plans then hundreds of jobs could be at risk.
The news comes just days after the chain’s US parent company announced that it had emerged from Chapter 11 protection after filing for bankruptcy earlier this year and restructuring almost £1.5 billion worth of debt.
Claire’s chief executive Ron Marshall said it had no plans for either a CVA or major store closures in the UK “in the foreseeable future”.
“Any stores we do close or open in the UK would be as part of our normal course of business,” he added.
Claire’s could join a growing number of well-known high street names to scale back its store estate as consumers increasingly shop online.
A string of companies have pushed through similar cost-cutting plans in the struggling retail sector this year, leading to hundreds of store closures and thousands of job losses across UK high streets and shopping centres.
Carpetright, Mothercare and New Look have used CVAs to offload unwanted stores, while Toys R Us and House of Fraser tried CVAs before going into administration.
