What Everyone Wants

We were appointed to close the business, managing the trade out of 128 stores over a period of eight weeks.  Administrators Ernst & Young had tried unsuccessfully for six weeks to find a buyer for retailer What Everyone Wants, so the decision was taken to close the company.  Once contract negotiations were complete, we placed a central team in the WEW head office and field teams in every store.  The head office team managed all operating costs to a tight budget and micro-managed sale discount strategies by product department and store with the field teams, who also took care of in-store signage to communicate price cuts.  Discounts were supported by local and national press and radio advertising.  Effective sell through of inventory by the scheduled closure dates for each store was implemented by field teams.  A closure timeline was planned with in-built flexibility to enable the administrators to negotiate on the sale of leases.  As well as leaving the stores and head office in ‘broom-clean’ condition, we undertook the sale of fixtures and equipment, generating additional income for creditors.  Providing a guaranteed return and returning all stores to new owners on agreed dates, we successfully completed the project to schedule.