A POPULAR fast fashion chain could close as many as a third of its stores across the country.
Bosses at the retailer are planning a desperate survival operation to keep the company afloat.
Quiz – led by the founding Ramzan family – has around 60 stores across the UK and employs about 1,500 people.
Restructuring experts have been brought in by the company’s chair Peter Cowgill, in an attempt to save the brand.
And chief executive Sheraz Ramzan is understood to be eyeing up a cut the worst-performing stores.
A pre-pack administration and a company voluntary arrangement (CVA) are two options being considered , the Telegraph reported.
A CVA allows firms to look at ways to save the business, such as reducing rent rates with landlords or closing stores.
Pre-pack is an insolvency process for a business to sell its assets before appointing administrations. It’s a way of selling a business to a third-party buyer.
A source added: “Nothing is being ruled out.”
The retailer, best known for it women’s party fashion ranges, warned at the start of December that a “significant reduction in revenues” could see cash run out in the new year.
Quiz has already called in advisers as it said it expects additional funding will be needed in the first quarter of 2025 and warned it might not be able to continue as a “going concern”.
The business has already gone through one restructuring in 2020 and renegotiated its rents as lockdowns damaged retailers.
[bc_video account_id=”5067014667001″ application_id=”” aspect_ratio=”16:9″ autoplay=”” caption=”Why are shops closing stores? ” embed=”in-page” experience_id=”” height=”100%” language_detection=”” max_height=”360px” max_width=”640px” min_width=”0px” mute=”” padding_top=”56%” picture_in_picture=”” player_id=”default” playlist_id=”” playsinline=”” sizing=”responsive” video_id=”6353582364112″ video_ids=”” width=”640px”]Quiz has already shut 240 stores since it floated in a stock market listing in 2017 that made the founding Ramzan family £90million.
The Glasgow-based fashion chain delisted from the London Stock Exchange last month to cut costs and engineer a turnaround of the business away from the full glare of City investors.
Advisers at Interpath are now trying to work on how to solve the growing crisis at the firm.
Execs have already taken out a £1million loan from Sheraz’s father, Tarak, in a desperate bid to save the chain last summer.
Quiz revealed they made nearly a £7million loss last year, but only took home £2.3million in profit the previous year.
HSBC is now understood to be cautious about pouring more cash into the company.
This comes as other major retailers have looked at closing underperforming stores.
[authenticated-scripts src=”%3Cscript%20class%3D%22palin-poll%22%20src%3D%22https%3A%2F%2Fwww.thesun.co.uk%2Fpollingwidgets%2Fv3%2Fwidget.js%3Fquestion_id%3D103469%26game%3Dpolling%22%3E%3C%2Fscript%3E” type=”embedded” width=”100″ /]ShoeZone has been one of the first chains to blame the Chancellor’s Budget for store closures.
The business, which has 297 shops across the UK with 2,250 employees, said the tax raid on business and extra costs would result in “the planned closure of a number of stores that have now become unviable”.
The chain did not reveal how many stores would be shut but halved its forecasts for the year from £10million to £5million.
New Look bosses have suggested the business will speed up store closures with 100 branches at risk, following a hike to National Insurance for businesses that’s due to come in from April.
Meanwhile online retailer ASOS has also had a tough time and its market value crashed by almost 90% since its peak in 2021.
Asos is now worth just £450million and had to sell off a majority stake in Topshop to raise cash.
The company was also forced to secure an expensive loan facility with high interest costs from Bantry Bay.
Boohoo is another online retailer that has faced hardship since lockdowns were lifted.
To save costs it has shut its expensive warehouse in the US and cut jobs at its Manchester headquarters and sold its London office.
It is also facing a battle with its biggest investor Mike Ashley, the Sports Direct billionaire.
Boohoo is now considering a break-up of the business which could see brands such as Pretty Little Thing, Dorothy Perkins and Nasty Gal separated.