Job market has its ups and downs

Household names Blacks Leisure Group, La Senza and Little Chef have all undergone some changes recently with some jobs saved and others lost.

BLACKS Leisure Group has recently (December, 2011/January, 2012) been saved from closure and La Senza has also had its fortunes revived after part of the business was sold to Alshaya UK Limited.

JD Sports has acquired all 302 stores operating under the Blacks and Millets brands and the 3,500 staff who work there. No redundancies have been made by the joint administrators.

Richard Fleming, joint administrator and UK Head of Restructuring at KPMG, explained: "Blacks has struggled, in tough economic conditions, to generate enough cash to service its high overhead costs. However, Blacks has a strong brand and accordingly generated a huge amount of buyer interest from some of the best-known entrepreneurs and competitors in the market."

Alshaya UK Limited, part of the Alshaya group of companies, a leading international retail franchise operator based in Kuwait, has acquired 60 of La Senza UK's stores, securing around 1,100 jobs in the UK.

Mohammed Alshaya, Executive Chairman of Alshaya Group in Kuwait, said: "We are delighted to have reached agreement to buy these La Senza stores – saving jobs, protecting a great brand for consumers and strengthening our UK presence and links."

La Senza UK started a programme of 81 store closures in December. These stores did not form part of the sale to Alshaya and ceased trading with immediate effect.

The administrators also announced the closure of a further three stores and 18 concessions. These closures have resulted in approximately 1,300 job losses. Around 15 members of staff have been retained by KPMG to assist the administrators.

Meanwhile, the roadside restaurant chain, Little Chef is closing 67 of its 161 sites. Those earmarked for closure have been trading unprofitably for a number of years due to a variety of economic and location factors.

The closures are expected to result in the loss of between 500 and 600 jobs at sites across the country, subject to consultations.

Graham Sims, Chairman of Little Chef, said: "When we acquired Little Chef four years ago we inherited a number of sites with leases that were uncompetitive. Despite very hard work from some very committed colleagues we have been unable to lift the performances of these sites to a level where they are viable.

"Consequently, following a thorough review in which we considered all the options it is with regret that we have had to close a number of sites. This means some people's jobs are at risk throughout the organisation. We will do everything in our power to help every individual find alternative employment within the Little Chef organisation. I know this will be tough and an uncertain time for many people in our team.

"By closing these sites we will be able to focus our attention on protecting over 1,500 of our colleagues' jobs and enabling our investments to be targeted on our remaining strong sites and to develop our brand and our New Concept - towards which the customer response has been very positive."

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