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News
Oddbins to close 39 stores
UK off-licence chain Oddbins has confirmed it is to close 39 stores – almost a third of its total number of outlets – as part of a strategic review to help secure its future.
The loss-making retailer recently appointed Spectrum Corporate Finance and Deloitte to carry out a top-down review of the business and help secure fresh investment.
Around 175 jobs are understood to be axed as a result of the closures announced yesterday (8 March).
A statement from Oddbins said: “Due to the tough economic climate, the business is being restructured with the result that 39 branches across the United Kingdom will be closed over the coming weeks. The staff have been informed today.
“The decision is part of a complete strategic review to ensure the business can move forward on a solid footing.”
In the last decade Oddbins has seen its number of stores drop from 250 to 128. Just 89 will remain in business after the newly-announced closures are completed.
The company is understood to require more working capital after weak sales, particularly over the Christmas period, were compounded by the financial strain of a long-running legal dispute with its former owner Castel, the French wine producer.
The full results of the strategic review were expected yesterday (Tuesday, 8 March), but the company now expects to make a more detailed announcement later in the week.
Most recent accounts for the company showed that it turned over £67 miilion in the year to the end of December 2009, with pre-tax losses of £4.5m, an improvement on the previous year’s pre-tax losses of £6.2m.
Alan Lodge, 09.03.2011
Is this due to the power of the supermarkets or poor product position or poor pricing strategy. It does seem self defeating to promote sales by the case in High Street location where parking is often difficult, and the single bottle prices seem inflated..
My shop ceased to trade on Tuesday ,8/11, and I’ve still not received a call or even an email from Mr. Baile or Mr. Young, let alone a word of what I might expect for redundancy etc etc. They have got ‘the staff’ as they continue to say, but they have very little idea of how they should be treated. Communication has always been a problem for these chaps and they’re making it very hard for folk to wish them well in the future. I understand how business works and it has been plain for some time now that the company could not function as it was. I do not understand the continued stoking of the ‘us vs them’ mentality between the shops and head office through ill communication.
Best regards and good luck to former colleagues.