Shoe retailer Dolcis goes into administration
Jan 22 2008 By Sarah Judd, Evening Gazette
TOUGH TIMES on the high street have forced shoe retailer Dolcis into administration, it was revealed today.
The footwear specialist, which has eight stores in the North-East, hopes a buyer for the firm will be found after appointing administrators KPMG.
A spokeswoman for clothing retailer Bay Trading Company in Middlesbrough, one of several large stores operating a Dolcis franchise, said everything was "up in the air", but it had been told to "trade as normal".
KPMG said it would endeavour to continue trading from as many of Dolcis’ 185 stores as possible while its restructuring team reviewed the business.
Brian Green, joint administrator and KPMG restructuring partner said: "Dolcis is a well recognised, long-established High Street brand so we are hopeful of finding a buyer for it.
"Dolcis is to some extent a victim of the tough trading conditions in which the retail sector is currently operating."
KPMG and the British Retail Consortium reported footwear sales fell for the third consecutive month in December, with the mass market hit hardest, as even large discounts failed to tempt customers.
Mr Green warned other sectors would feel the pinch in the near future.
"While most businesses wait and see whether the recent dent to consumer confidence has a longer term impact on the wider economy, the retail sector and its suppliers operate at the sharp end, feeling the impact of tighter consumer spending with more immediacy and arguably acting as an indicator of trouble ahead for other sectors," he said.
Steve Cochrane, owner of designer fashion retailer Psyche who sold his shoe business shoeshop.com in 199X said the demise of Dolcis had been on the cards.
"It’s a shame to see landmark businesses like that go," he said. Shoeshop.com, meanwhile, was enjoying "fantastic growth", selling a thousand pairs of shoes each week. Were new ownersto be found, he believed they could turn around the fortunes of Dolcis by bringing it into the 21st Century.
