Popular clothing chain Edinburgh Woollen Mill (EWM) has been granted a 10-day extension in a bid to avoid insolvency - while 24,000 jobs are at risk.
The company, which also owns Peacocks and Jaeger, lodged a notice of intention to appoint administrators, according to documents filed with the High Court.
Staff, many of whom now face unemployment, were informed local lockdown restrictions had left the business struggling.
However, the chain has now been granted a further 10 working days to speak to potential suitors and work on a rescue plan.
Bosses have already started closing 50 stores with 600 job losses, while they work through securing backing for the rest of the business.
READ MORE: Edinburgh Woollen Mill on brink of insolvency with 24,000 jobs at risk
Meanwhile, it is understood a further 100 to 150 stores across the group are being earmarked for closure while talks continue with landlords.
Bosses wrote to staff this morning, warning them that the national and local lockdowns had hit sales very heavily, and that the recent months had been a very challenging time.
It said: “Two weeks ago we wrote to you to say that we had applied to the High Court to protect the group from creditors for a short time, while we worked on a longer term plan to rescue as much of it as possible from the devastating effects of Covid-19 and the lockdowns.
“Since then we have been working on that plan and have made good progress, but it is a complex and difficult process.
“We are speaking to a number of parties who are interested in either buying parts of the business or offering investment.
“What is clear is that this process will mean a lot of change for all of us and inevitably a significant number of store closures.
“We are pleased to say though that today the High Court has agreed to extend the breathing space for another two weeks to give us more time to work on the details and further pursue these opportunities.
“We will use this time as best we can to protect the businesses and save jobs.”
The company, owned by businessman Philip Day, is in talks with the owner of shirt-maker TM Lewin – Torque Brands – to buy Jaeger, according to reports by Sky News, and other parties are said to be interested.
Mr Day is also reported to be trying to save Peacocks, with a capital injection from US hedge fund Davidson Kempner.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel