Retail group Sears today announced a further stage in its programme to dismantle its troubled shoe stores, lacing up a deal to sell off Shoe Express in a deal worth over £26.7m.
Shoe Express, a subsidiary of British Shoe Corporation, is to be sold to a privately-owned firm, Alnery, for £8.3m, in addition to the proceeds from the separate sale of 53 related properties.
Alnery is buying the business, stock and leases of 185 Shoe Express stores. It will also manage the previously announced closure of 136 stores, at a cost of around £32m to Sears.
The deal is the latest in a series dismantling Sears’ troubled shoe store business, following the sell off early this month of Dolcis. Sears said the deal would lead to a £33m loss and together withclosures costs would lead to an overall cost of £65m. In September, the group said the total cost of withdrawing from the shoe businesses would be £150m.
A Sears spokeswoman said: “The two businesses we have left are Shoe City and Cable and negotiations to sell those are under way.”She said the company was in discussions with “a number of parties” over the two stores.
Sears chairman, Sir Bob Reid, said: “I am encouraged by the sale of Shoe Express, which accounts for the majority of the trading losses at British Shoe Corporation expected in the current year, and by the overall progress being made in exiting the footwear businesses within our anticipated time frame and cost structure.”
Speaking of the expected 550 redundancies from the already-announced store closures, he added: “Where redundancies occur we will make every effort to redeploy as many staff as possible within the Sears network.”
PA News 16/12/97
