Battle store to close

The Battle Steamer Trading Cookshop, in High Street, Battle, is one of ten ‘underperforming’ branches set to close following a pre-pack administration deal by rival ProCook.

The other stores to close are located in Heathfield, Westerham, Dorking, Bluewater, Taunton, Wells, Bournemouth, Cambridge and Glasgow.

As part of the sales process, Steve Absolom and Will Wright of KPMG LLP were appointed joint administrators of Steamer Trading Limited on January 9, 2019.

Following their appointment, the joint administrators completed an agreement to sell 27 of the 38 Steamer Trading stores and the majority of the business and assets to ProCook.

A further store – trading under the Divertimenti brand in Knightsbridge – has been acquired by Divertimenti Limited.

As a result of both deals, 332 jobs have been secured.

However, ten stores, including one in Battle, were not part of the sale, according to KPMG.

These will close immediately, resulting in the loss of 79 jobs.

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Nick Holloway, director at KPMG UK, who led the sale, said: “We are delighted that we have been able to rescue such a long established business including a high proportion of stores and preserve a large number of jobs, especially given the current economic pressures faced by retailers across the UK.

“The trade sale compliments the existing ProCook business and further increases their high street presence.”

Steve Absolom, restructuring partner at KPMG in the UK and joint administrator, added: “Whilst it is always pleasing to preserve a significant number of jobs, sadly a number of redundancies are to be made at the 10 closed stores.
“Over the coming days, our priority is to ensure all employees who have been affected by redundancy receive the information and guidance they need in order to claim monies owed from the Redundancy Payments Office.”