A MAJOR home improvement brand is set to shut 56 stores after tumbling into administration.
Tile supplier CTD Tiles has struck a rescue deal with rival brand Topps Tiles after collapsing.
The Leicester-based brand will shut a total of 56 sites and cut 268 jobs, administrators have said.
It ran 86 stores across the UK and employed 425 staff.
CTD fell into insolvency on Monday after coming under pressure from a downturn in the home improvement sector.
Administrators from Interpath Advisory said competitor Topps has struck a £9million deal to buy CTD’s brands, intellectual property, stock, 30 stores and operation of distribution sites in Leeds and Kings Norton.
Related brands include CTD Tiles, CTD Trade and CTD Architectural Tiles, with total annual revenue of around £75million.
It’s understood that 92 staff will transfer over to Topps and administrators said they will also keep on a further 65 to deal with the transition of the administration process.
However, they confirmed that the remaining 56 shops have now shut, leading to the “regrettable” decision to make 268 workers redundant.
James Lumb, managing director at Interpath Advisory and joint administrator of CTD Tiles, said: “CTD Tiles is a major player in the industry, but market conditions proved insurmountable as consumer and trade demand failed to recover in line with expectations.
“The transaction with Topps Group provides continuity for a considerable number of staff and stores as part of a major tiles group.”
Mr Lumb said that the firm is focused on supporting those staff and has specialist teams on-site working with employees to help make representations to the Redundancy Payments Service where relevant.
Rob Parker, Topps Group chief executive, said: “The CTD brand and assets are an excellent fit with our existing business and the acquisition creates a new and complementary specialist tile business within the Topps Group.
“CTD operates a different model to our existing Topps Tiles retail stores, with separate trade and retail offers within each unit and a number of market-specific sub-brands which are differentiated from our existing offer.”
Here is the full list of CTD Tiles stores which have shut:
Here are the stores which have been sold:
The news today follows a tricky time for home improvement chains, both large and small.
It comes as shoppers have been cutting back on spending following the pandemic.
Plus the recent turmoil in the housing market has meant that homeowners aren’t as focused on DIY projects as they once were.
Most recently, Carpetright has been bought in a rescue deal by rival Tapi but will shut the vast majority of stores and cut more than 1,000 jobs.
In the spring, Kingfisher, which owns both B&Q and Screwfix, revealed annual profits slumped by more than a quarter.
The company reported a 25.1% drop in underlying pre-tax profits to £568million for the year to January 31, 2024.
Window and door specialist Everest called in administrators in April leaving customers in the dark about their orders
Last year, the group had previously cautioned profits would slip after a 36% drop in pre-tax profits from £1billion to £611million in the 12 months to January 2023.
Rival Wickes, also reported a 31% fall in profits to £52million on flat revenues of £1.55billion for 2023.
Windows and doors company Safestyle collapsed into administration in October last year.
The company has a manufacturing site in Wombwell, near Barnsley and 42 sales branches and depots across the country.
We have seen several big losses in the last few years including popular discounter Wilko.
Following several failed rescue bids, fellow bargain chain The Range bought Wilko‘s name and intellectual property.
CDS Superstores, trading as The Range and Wilko, relaunched the latter’s website before relaunching stores as well.
Fans of Paperchase were devastated when the retailer disappeared from the high street in April last year.
It fell into administration in February after failing to find a buyer.
This led to the closure of all of its 134 shops including concessions stands in Next and Selfridges, with 900 job losses.
Supermarket giant Tesco bought the rights to the brand and announced earlier this month that it would be returning to hundreds of stores.
Health and beauty chain The Body Shop fell into administration early in 2024 and announced the closure of many of its 200 stores.
Almost 500 staff are set to lose their jobs after 75 stores were earmarked for closure.
Since then, it’s been confirmed that Aurea Holding, an investment business, is in talks to acquire The Body Shop after beating out competing bidders in an auction process.
Ted Baker fell into administration in March 2024 too, with 15 stores having shut by April 19.
In April, it was reported that Next and the Frasers Group were reportedly eyeing up some of the ailing retailer’s stores.
M&Co fell into administration in 2022 but was expected to make a surprise comeback in autumn 2023.
Fellow retailer Yours Clothing bought the M&Co brand and intellectual property after the chain went into administration in December 2022.
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