The joint administrators of a collapsed Glasgow furniture business say they will be contacting all customers who have prepaid for items.
And they have advised customers of Morale Home Furnishings UK Limited who have paid for items to “contact Showroom@moraleuk.co.uk in the first instance”.
Blair Nimmo and Alistair McAlinden from Interpath Advisory were on Wednesday appointed as joint administrators of the company.
Based in Glasgow, Morale is a retailer of furniture and homewares, as well as garden furniture and accessories.
READ MORE: Alarming talk on future of free university tuition in Scotland
Asked what would happen with customers who have paid deposits for furniture which has not yet been delivered or collected, a spokeswoman for Interpath Advisory said: “The joint administrators will be contacting all customers who have prepaid for items to discuss each case. Customers who have paid for items are advised to contact Showroom@moraleuk.co.uk in the first instance.”
The administrators said on Thursday: “Morale had been trading successfully since 2006, under the ownership of the well-known and respected businessman Khalid Ali and his family, and had navigated the challenges of Covid-19. However, the company has faced significant headwinds over recent months with downward price point pressure from online retailers and declining in-store footfall.
READ MORE: Ian McConnell: Labour leader easiest target for Yousaf with U-turn
“The directors have worked tirelessly to explore alternative solutions and have injected significant funding to support the business but, ultimately, have taken the difficult decision to seek the appointment of administrators.”
Following their appointment, the joint administrators announced they would continue to trade the business “for a period”, and they have started a closing-down sale at the Morale store at Hillington Industrial Estate in Glasgow.
READ MORE: Ian McConnell: We must not ignore this worrying warning on UK
The administrators said: “The sale will initially see discounts of at least 30% off RRP (recommended retail price) on all stock, and up to 60% off RRP on selected lines on display furniture straight from the showroom.
“Stock available includes a wide range of high-quality living, dining and bedroom furniture, garden furniture and accessories, as well as lighting and soft furnishings.”
The company has around six employees, the administrators said.
They added that all staff would be retained “immediately following the appointment of the joint administrators and while they continue to trade the business”.
Mr McAlinden, head of Interpath Advisory in Scotland, said: “As consumers continue to tighten their belts as a result of the cost-of-living crisis, retailers of big-ticket items and similar considered purchases continue to come under significant pressure. Unfortunately, in the case of Morale, the company has been impacted by customers moving to lower-priced alternatives, including those retailers which predominantly sell online.”
He added: “Our intention is to trade the business for a short period while we seek to sell all remaining stock, so would encourage customers to visit the store over the coming days, where Morale’s team of dedicated employees will be available to assist.”
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 here