Customade Group, today announced the completion of a significant financial restructuring aimed at ensuring the long-term stability of its trading brands and securing the future of hundreds of jobs within the Group.
The Group’s statutory accounts filed in October 2023 for the year ending December 2022 demonstrated the financial strain caused by historic trading losses and the pressing need to refinance senior banking facilities by the end of December 2024. In a very difficult market, a series of operational changes were made to reduce costs and improve service, and these changes created a platform to deliver sales of the trading businesses.
“Over the past two years, the market for our products has been contracting, and we’ve witnessed numerous businesses within our sector struggle and ultimately go into insolvency. Our goal throughout the process was to secure the trading future of as much of the Group’s previous operations as we could and thereby protect the jobs of as many of our employees as possible” said Will Gold, CEO of Customade Group.
As part of the restructuring, the assets and trade of Polyframe, Stevenswood, REAL and Atlas have been sold to new buyers in two separate transactions. These transactions have ensured the continuity of those brands and safeguarded the jobs of more than 80% of the workforce. Regrettably, only four of the five Group businesses have been acquired. The Virtuoso business has not been sold as part of these transactions and will cease trading. There are also a small number of redundancies in Group roles and in certain Stevenswood branches and related support functions.
“I am pleased that through these transactions we have been able to secure so many jobs going forwards but I am deeply disappointed that we were unable to find a solution that preserved the Virtuoso business and avoided the other staff redundancies. I am hugely grateful to all our staff that worked so hard and showed such commitment during a very difficult period and for the support of our supply chain partners and valued customers” said Will Gold, CEO of Customade Group.
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