First Quench Retailing

First Quench Retailing was a group of over 1200 off-licences throughout the UK, trading under a number of High Street brands, including Threshers, Wine Rack & The Local.

Following a difficult trading period, and under intense competitive pressure
from the supermarkets, KPMG was appointed as administrator to the company on 29th October 2009. Gordon Brothers was appointed to manage the closure of an initial tranche of 373 loss-making stores a few days later, while the administrator tried to find solutions to sell the remaining stores as an ongoing business.

Gordon Brothers immediately placed a central team to work alongside both the KPMG team and the First Quench management. Within 3 days, a full, in-store signage package was designed, printed and delivered to all 373 stores; and a detailed strategy was developed for trading out of all stores and maximising cash for the client. This was supported by a national media programme and PR campaign.

Alongside the central strategy, a large-scale Gordon Brothers’ operational field team managed a highly complex, multi-faceted, localised sales and discount strategy, to ensure fast sell-through of all inventory at the highest possible rates of recovery.  Gordon Brothers’ significant resource input allowed this huge, complex project to run with maximum efficiency.

It quickly became evident that none of the desired solutions to sell the business as a going concern were going to manifest so a further two, large tranches of stores - 772 in total - were added to the project, putting significant additional strain on all parties. Gordon Brothers immediately drafted in additional retail consultants to deliver the enlarged project scope, enabling EVERY SINGLE STORE to be closed on, or before, the agreed dates. Between the beginning of the project on 5th November and the last trading day of the last store, 19th December, the 50-strong Gordon Brothers team had closed a total of 1145 stores in a little over six weeks, making this the largest store closure project in Europe.

The deal was overwhelmingly successful, with a retail inventory recovery value for the client considerably in excess of the target; and a significant saving on overheads, as all stores were traded out within a very tight time-frame, the majority within 3 weeks. This meant that the maximum possible cash recovery was achieved for the creditors.

Ian Corfield, KPMG, said, “Appointing Gordon Brothers to trade out the store portfolio proved to be the right decision.They had a large team in place within hours and had implemented what proved to be a winning formula - across all stores,nationwide - within 3 days”

“They subsequently integrated further, large numbers of closure stores into the project with ease. Their understanding of maximising cash from retail inventory in a trade-out scenario is clearly outstanding and their ability to work seamlessly alongside the incumbent KPMG and FQR teams ensured true added value. The relatively few issues that arose during the project were dealt with immediately and efficiently. To close well over 1100 stores, without a single store trading beyond what was an extremely tight deadline, was fantastic.”