Bed manufacturer and retailer Mattressman has entered a restructuring process to downsize its operation due to a slump in sales. Business rescue and insolvency specialist McTear Williams & Wood is assisting the company with a CVA proposal, which is currently being put to creditors.
Mattressman will continue to trade, and is working closely with employees and suppliers to secure its future. All outstanding customer orders should be fulfilled, but where that is not possible customers will get their money back.
The plan includes reducing the company's store portfolio from 25 to 11. The stores to close are Coventry, Rotherham, Leicester, Lincoln, Manchester, Birmingham, Nottingham, Corby, Chingford, Ipswich, Isle of Wight, Thanet, Milton Keynes and York.
The changes to the company will also mean 136 job losses.
Mattressman reports that it has encountered numerous issues in the last 12 months, culminating in a shock -15% LFL drop in sales in April and May, which turned a profit of £1.1m in 2017 into a loss of £2.6m in the financial year ended 31st March 2018.
MD Andrew Kerry says: "Unfortunately, sometimes in business you have to go backwards to go forwards. The CVA will enable us to remodel our business to match the changing retail environment. We have always been very successful online and we are going to concentrate on that and smaller stores in East Anglia which have always worked well. All are staff are focused on delivering business as usual, and we are optimistic about the future."
