THE new owner of collapsed retail chain Peacocks has raised hopes of saving another 75 stores from permanent closure.
Edinburgh Woollen Mill (EWM), which has its headquarters in Langholm, Dumfriesshire, bought 388 Peacocks stores which were in administration, saving 6000 jobs, and is now in discussions to reopen some unprofitable stores that were not part of the deal.
EWM owner Philip Day said yesterday: "A lot of the 244 stores that closed were blindingly unprofitable so we don't want to reopen those, but if we get the right sort of deals we could reopen 75 of them.
"We will look to go to monthly rents and get a rent reduction. If we can get new lease deals, we'll try to reopen those shops."
More than 3100 jobs were lost last week after administrator KPMG announced the immediate closure of stores that were not part of the EWM takeover.
Among the 30 branches were outlets in Clydebank, Meadowbank, East Kilbride and Inverness. It is believed food retailers such as Starbucks, Sainsbury's and Greggs will be interested in the premises.
Mr Day also said he was hoping to rehire about 80 Cardiff head office staff who were made redundant following the demise of Peacocks, which collapsed under its debt mountain in January in the biggest retail failure since Woolworths.
The tycoon said: "I would like to save as many jobs as I can – the economic situation is bad enough and we could do without more people going on the dole."
Mr Day has created one of the UK's biggest high street groups, with a record of turning around troubled companies.
He bought 77 stores from the administrators of textiles business Rosebys in 2008, which were merged with furnishings business Ponden Mill to create Ponden Home. Last summer he bought fashion brand Jane Norman and 33 stores under administration.
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