Insolvency specialists McTear Williams & Wood confirm there were dozens of parties interested in buying the DIY businesses but that the deal with director Barry Godfrey preserved the value in the stores and has meant former staff have received payment more quickly.
Yesterday it was announced that Godfrey DIY's stores in Diss and Stowmarket will trade on as going concerns, having been bought out of liquidation by md Barry Godfrey.

Andrew McTear of regional business rescue and insolvency specialists McTear Williams & Wood was appointed liquidator at a creditors' meeting on 30 January 2013 and concluded the sale of the business and assets in the Diss and Stowmarket stores to Mr Godfrey's newly-incorporated firm Harvey House Retail Limited the next day.

Mr McTear said: "We received keen interest from half a dozen parties in the Diss and Stowmarket stores and set a deadline for offers on the day of the liquidation. To preserve value in the stores we had to conclude the sale before a new property rental period started on 1 February 2013 and we achieved this with only eight hours to spare."

He added: "Our job now is to agree creditors' claims and pay a dividend to creditors. In fact, since being appointed, we have worked around the clock to pay as much of the 50 employees' claims as possible and managed to press the button transferring the funds on day two of the liquidation. This is the first time in my career of over 25 years that we have been able to pay employee preferential claims so quickly but, from the start, we were determined to do everything we could to get some money to the employees, as the company's bank account had been frozen and it was unable to release the January wages."

Barry Godfrey said of the deal: "We are pleased to have been successful in buying the Diss and Stowmarket assets from the liquidator and to be able to re-employ about 15 people. We are now working hard to restock the Diss and Stowmarket stores and to make way for this will be running a massive clearance liquidation sale over the next few weeks. The future for the Norwich store remains uncertain."