Behar Carpets, the Glasgow business founded in 1920, saw its losses widen substantially in its last financial year amid depressed consumer spending.
Accounts just filed at Companies House show a deterioration of over £513,000 in the profit and loss account in the year to June 30 2012, and also reveal that the business was sold to new owners out of administration a year ago.
The business founded by Victor Behar and latterly owned by his grandson Martin Slater had expected to narrow its losses in 2012.
Veteran managing director David Redman said two years ago that the business was on track to at least break even despite the tough environment across the group's 13 Scottish stores and two franchised outlets in Kent.
But abbreviated accounts show that Behar Carpets Holdings saw a £1242 surplus in the profit and loss account at December 31 2010 slide to a £514,785 deficit at June 30 2012. The group had called-up share capital of £437,000, and recorded a deficit in shareholders' funds of £77,285
The business was bought by Culzean Ventures, an entity set up for the purpose by directors of Nixon & Hope, a West Midlands-based flooring specialist which last year turned over almost £30m and made a pre-tax profit of £131, 874.
Directors at Nixon & Hope were not available yesterday.
The Behar website continues to record that "the business was founded in 1920 by Victor Isaac Behar, an expert in Oriental carpet restoration, when he opened a small shop in Sauchiehall Street" and that the business expanded "over the next 87 years".
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