Carpetright rival Tapi has struck a multimillion-pound deal to rescue the flooring specialist’s brand and a number of stores from administration.
Tapi is to buy the Carpetright brand, intellectual property, two warehouses and 54 of its stores in a pre-pack deal today (22 July) that will save over 300 jobs, The Times reported.
The deal does not include the retailer’s headquarters in Purfleet, Essex or 200 other shops, resulting in around 1,000 jobs cut.
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It comes after PwC had been hired to find a buyer earlier this month for Carpetright after it filed a notice of intention to appoint the firm as administrator.
Tapi is understood to have been the only company to submit an offer that involved rescuing both jobs and stores – other options included liquidating the business entirely.
The retailer was founded in 2014 by Martin Harris, the son of Carpetright founder Lord Harris of Peckham, who is also a shareholder.
A complete rescue deal from Tapi was likely to have been unviable because the retailer has opened many of its stores within very close proximity to its competitor and a large number of Carpetright stores were also unprofitable.
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