Mamas & Papas in pre-pack administration

By

Sandra Halliday

Published
Nov 8, 2019

In the same week as Mothercare threw in the towel with its UK stores, rival mother and baby products chain Mamas & Papas has opted for a pre-pack administration with its existing owner back in control. Bluegem Capital stays at the helm, Sky News reported.

This process will allow it to close some of its 27 shops and to shed some other financial liabilities. But the fact that the company will continue to operate means that a large number of jobs have been saved (said to be around 500) with only around 70 redundancies. But some head office jobs could also be lost later.

It will close six loss-making stores in Aberdeen, Preston, Milton Keynes, Lincoln, Leamington and Fareham.

It's a further sign of the weakness on the UK High Street as a result of the twin pressures of Brexit and the shift by consumers to online retail.

Britain's retail sector is going through a transformation such as it has rarely seen before and few retailers are emerging unscathed from the process, even though there are clear winners in the physical store space as well as losers.

The failure of Mamas & Papas will come as a blow to Bluegem, which also saw another major investment, Jack Wills, being taken over by Sports Direct a few months ago after an insolvency process.