The UK arm of the US retailer has been sold to a restructuring company, which will close the stores.
BBC reported that the Staples brand is “to disappear from UK high streets” after the sale to restructuring company Hilco for a “nominal” sum. The UK arm “employs 1,100 people across 106 stores, with Hilco stating that it “was planning to phase out Staples-branded shops over the coming months”, though the fate of its online and B2B operations were not discussed.
The Recycler had reported earlier this year that Cerberus, an investment firm and “one of Wall Street’s most powerful hedge funds”, had been in talks to rescue Staples in Europe, but there was doubt that Cerberus would keep the stores open, and this would have affected more than 100 stores.
Staples UK posted £4.2 million ($5 million/€4.7 million) of losses on £220 million ($271million/€246 million) of sales for January 2015, and The Telegraph had reported at the time that the saving grace might have been that Staples’ online and B2B division were both “profitable” and may be seen as “having a more viable future”.
Staples has been trying to reduce its overheads since the failed merger with Office Depot , and with over “200 stores in 16 countries” will try to do that by closures to save $300 million (€272 million). Financial firm KPMG had been “appointed to review the future of the European business” this year, which caused rumours that Staples would either “pull the plug on the business” or try to restructure and make huge cutbacks.
Hilco’s Paul McGowan stated that “while retail in the UK has been challenged recently, a team led by retail veteran Alan Gaynor will work alongside the existing management team to build a plan for success for the business”. The news site noted that CEO Shira Goodman had said “selling the UK business was in line with its strategy of focusing on the North American and mid-market business”.
Goodman was also quoted as saying that the company was making “good progress” on the rest of its European business, in order to allow it to “streamline our operations, sharpen our focus and more aggressively pursue our mid-market growth strategy”.