HIGH STREET chain, The Original Factory Shop, is set to enter administration, putting thousands of jobs at risk nationwide – including staff at the Bexhill branch on St Leonards Road.
The move follows a difficult period for the retailer, which is owned by Modella Capital.
The firm confirmed that insolvency proceedings will begin across the UK and Ireland, a step designed to give the businesses time to seek a potential buyer.
Claire’s, owned by the same company, may face a similar fate. The brands had been seeking new ownership after their US parent company filed for bankruptcy last year.
Modella Capital said that challenging trading conditions, combined with what it described as ‘alarming’ Christmas sales, had left both retailers in a precarious position.
A Modella spokesperson said: “This has been a very tough decision. We have worked intensively in an effort to save both businesses, having made last-ditch attempts to rescue them, but neither has a realistic possibility of trading profitably again.”
The company added that both chains were already ‘highly vulnerable’ before being acquired, and pointed to wider pressures facing the high street, which it said ‘remains extremely challenging’. Government policy and ongoing cost increases were also cited as contributing factors.
The announcement makes Claire’s and The Original Factory Shop the latest well-known names to struggle amid shifting shopping habits, with more consumers buying online and fewer visits to traditional town centre stores.
Modella said: “A combination of very weak consumer confidence, highly adverse government fiscal policies and continued cost inflation is causing many established and much-loved businesses to suffer badly.”
