Administrators to close 41 Comet stores
Published: 19 November 2012
Comet's administrators announced today that 41 of the electrical chain's stores will be closed by the end of November unless a buyer can be found.
Deloitte said it would look to redeploy staff from any of the stores facing closure to other stores nearby, but that there would inevitably be redundancies. Some 800 employees are reported to work in the outlets earmarked for closure.
A closing-down sale offering increased discounts began in 27 stores on Saturday, with the other 14 stores due to join them this week.
The administrators said that more generous discounts would also be applied to products across all of the other 195 Comet stores, which are continuing to trade as usual.
Deloitte is still having discussions with parties interested in buying parts of the business, and according to The Telegraph this weekend is working on deals to save up to 50 of the stores. One agreement relating to a bundle of 20 Comet shops could be complete by the end of this week but, says The Telegraph, the prospects for Comet surviving as a company are bleak.
Meanwhile, staff at the beleaguered retailer have launched an e-petition demanding a Parliamentary investigation into the way Comet owner OpCapita ran Comet, and the company's subsequent collapse into administration.
It is only a year since the private equity firm bought the chain from Kesa Electricals for a nominal £2. OpCapita failed to revive Comet's fortunes, but there is speculation that the investors may yet walk away with a profit.
The petition says: "The promise was made that OpCapita would turn our fortunes around. Yet all that's happened is that we've been stripped down piece by piece until the company wasn't self-sustainable any more.
"The staff of Comet deserve to know everything regarding its downfall as we are currently working under the shadow of redundancy on a day to day basis."
The petition also wonders where the £85m that OpCapita says it has invested in Comet has been spent. And it asks: "Where did the money from the sales of stock go? As it obviously wasn't on stock replenishment."