Vergo Retail Ltd was a department store A department store is a retail establishment which specializes in satisfying a wide range of the consumer's personal and residential durable goods product needs; and at the same time offering the consumer a choice multiple merchandise lines, at variable price points, in all product categories. Department stores usually sell products including business based in Liverpool Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough of Merseyside, England, along the eastern side of the Mersey Estuary. It was founded as a borough in 1207 and was granted city status in 1880. Liverpool is the fourth largest city in the United Kingdom (third largest in England) and has a population of 435,500, and lies at the centre of the wider, England, founded in 2007 and currently in administration Administration, as a legal concept, is a procedure under the insolvency laws of a number of common law jurisdictions. It functions as a rescue mechanism for insolvent companies and allows them to carry on running their business. The process – an alternative to liquidation – is often known as going into administration. Vergo Retail ran 20 shops, consisting of nine department stores, including Lewis's Lewis's was a large department store in Liverpool city centre. It was formerly the flagship of a group of department stores under the Lewis's name, that operated from 1856 to 1991. After the closure of the Manchester store, only the original Liverpool store continued to trade under the Lewis's name. After being owned by the store group Owen Owen of Liverpool Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough of Merseyside, England, along the eastern side of the Mersey Estuary. It was founded as a borough in 1207 and was granted city status in 1880. Liverpool is the fourth largest city in the United Kingdom (third largest in England) and has a population of 435,500, and lies at the centre of the wider, Robbs of Hexham Hexham is a market town in Northumberland, England, located south of the River Tyne, and was the administrative centre for the Tynedale district in Northumberland from 1974–2009. The three major towns in Tynedale were Hexham along with Prudhoe and Haltwhistle, although in terms of population, Prudhoe was the largest. In 2001 Hexham had a, Joplings The store was established in 1804. In December 1954 the store burnt down and operated from temporary space until its present purpose-built building opened in 1956. It was the night the skies over Sunderland turned a fiery red – it was also a night no-one would ever forget of Sunderland Sunderland (pronounced /ˈsʌndɚlənd/ or /ˈsʌn(d)lən/) lies at the heart of the City of Sunderland, a metropolitan borough of Tyne and Wear, in North East England. It is situated at the mouth of the River Wear and Derrys of Plymouth Plymouth ( /ˈplɪməθ/ ) is a city and unitary authority area on the coast of Devon, England, about 190 miles (310 km) south-west of London. It is built between the mouths of the rivers Plym to the east and Tamar to the west, where they join Plymouth Sound. Since 1967 the City of Plymouth has included the suburbs of Plympton and Plymstock, which and four others in Essex The name Essex originates in the Anglo-Saxon period of the Early Middle Ages and has its root in the Old English Ēastseaxe , the eastern kingdom of the Saxons, Suffolk The county is low-lying with few hills, and is largely wetland habitat and arable land with the wetlands of The Broads in the North. The Suffolk Coast and Heaths are an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty and Norfolk Of the 34 non-metropolitan English counties, Norfolk is the seventh most populous, with a population of 850,800 . However, as a largely rural county it has a low population density, 155 people per square kilometre (or 401 per square mile.) Norfolk has about one-thirtieth the population density of Central London, the tenth lowest density county in; four Homemaker stores in Devon Devon is the fourth largest of the English counties and has a population of 1,141,600. The county town is the cathedral city of Exeter and the county contains two independent unitary authorities: the port city of Plymouth and the Torbay conurbation of seaside resorts, in addition to Devon County Council itself. Plymouth is also the largest city in, four home and fashion stores in Essex and Suffolk; two home stores in Essex; and a jewellery store in Colchester Colchester (pronounced /ˈkoʊltʃɛstər/ ) is a historical army town and the largest settlement within the borough of Colchester in Essex, England.
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History
Lewis's Department Store, LiverpoolVergo Retail was formed in May 2007 in order to acquire Lewis's, Robbs and Joplings from Owen Owen Ltd Owen Owen was a Liverpool-based operator of department stores in the United Kingdom which was in administration. The company was and is, owned by David Thompson, the owner of Owen Owen and a former director of Mothercare Mothercare plc is a British retailer which specialises in products for expectant mothers and in general merchandise for children up to 8 years old. It is listed on the London Stock Exchange and is a constituent of the FTSE 250 Index, Habitat and British Home Stores, and more recently director & shareholder of MK One which was sold in 2004 for £55m.[4][5][6]
In 2009 Vergo Retail entered a further phase of growth, acquiring the department store operations of two co-operative societies. First, in February 2009, Plymouth and South West Co-operative Society (Plymco) agreed to sell its non-food business to Vergo.[4] This consisted of Derrys Department Store in Plymouth, and four Homemaker stores in Devon and Cornwall.[4] Vergo Retail took control of these stores on 15 March 2009.[citation needed] Secondly, on 16 June 2009, it was announced that Vergo Retail would take over the existing East of England Co-operative Society The East of England Co-operative Society Limited is the third largest consumer co-operative in the United Kingdom. It is a registered Industrial and Provident Society, a member of the Co-operative Union Ltd., the Co-operative Retail Trading Group, the Co-operative Travel Trading Group and a corporate member of Co-operative Group Ltd. , the largest Department Stores based throughout Norfolk Of the 34 non-metropolitan English counties, Norfolk is the seventh most populous, with a population of 850,800 . However, as a largely rural county it has a low population density, 155 people per square kilometre (or 401 per square mile.) Norfolk has about one-thirtieth the population density of Central London, the tenth lowest density county in, Suffolk The county is low-lying with few hills, and is largely wetland habitat and arable land with the wetlands of The Broads in the North. The Suffolk Coast and Heaths are an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty and Essex The name Essex originates in the Anglo-Saxon period of the Early Middle Ages and has its root in the Old English Ēastseaxe , the eastern kingdom of the Saxons, with the 350 current staff employed by the East of England Co-operative expected to keep their jobs during the transfer. Department stores in Norwich Norwich (pronounced /ˈnɒrɨdʒ/ NORR-ij or /ˈnɒrɨtʃ/ NORR-ich) is a city in England. It is the regional administrative centre and county town of Norfolk. During the 11th century, Norwich was the second largest city in England, after London, and one of the most important places in the kingdom, Ipswich Ipswich (pronounced /ˈɪpswɪtʃ/ ) (previously Gyppeswick in variant spellings) is a non-metropolitan district and the county town of Suffolk, England. It is located on the estuary of the River Orwell. Nearby towns are Felixstowe in Suffolk and Harwich and Colchester in Essex, Great Yarmouth Great Yarmouth, often known to locals as Yarmouth, is a coastal town in Norfolk, England. It is at the mouth of the River Yare, 20 miles east of Norwich, Clacton-on-Sea Clacton-on-Sea is the largest town on the Tendring Peninsula, in Essex, England and was founded in 1871. It is a seaside resort that attracted many tourists in the summer months between the 1950s and 1970s, but which like many other British sea-side resorts went into decline as a holiday destination since holidays abroad became more affordable. It and Colchester Colchester (pronounced /ˈkoʊltʃɛstər/ ) is a historical army town and the largest settlement within the borough of Colchester in Essex, England, along with six specialist home stores and one jewellery store, were transferred to Vergo Retail on 4 July 2009 with the East of England Co-operative Society retaining the freehold In English law a freehold refers to the ownership of real property, being the land and all immovable structures attached to such land. This is opposed to a leasehold in which the property reverts back to the owner of the land after the lease period has expired. Immovable property includes land and all that naturally goes with it, such as buildings,.[7]
Decline & Administration
On 22 January 2010 it was announced that Lewis's of Liverpool was to close by June 2010 as the lease from the landlords, Merepark, expired then and it could not be renewed owing to a planned redevelopment of the building. As a result a closing down sale was launched to sell around £5 million of stock, as well as fixtures and fittings. Vergo's Head Office, which is also located in the Renshaw Street premises, would continue to operate from there in the short term until alternative accommodation was available.[8]
Closing down sale at Lewis's.On 7 May 2010 Vergo was placed into administration, with MCR appointed as the administrators.[2] From 11 May 2010 335 staff were made redundant and it was announced that there would be ten store closures within the next four weeks unless a buyer was found. These are Lewis's of Liverpool (already scheduled for closure), Robbs of Hexham, Joplings of Sunderland, Derry's of Plymouth, the "Fashion, Home & More!" stores in Witham, Clacton-on-Sea, Stowmarket and Dovercourt, the department store in Norwich and The Jewellery Store in Colchester.[9] This left ten stores open, namely the Homemaker stores in Kingsteignton, Launceston, Exmouth and Cothill (Plymouth); the Vergo at Home stores at Stanway (Colchester) and Clacton-on-Sea; the "Fashion Home & More!" store in Felixstowe and the Ipswich, Great Yarmouth and Colchester department stores. By 21 May 2010 Beales had lodged a formal notice of interest in Robbs of Hexham, whilst the administrators asked the Buccleuch Group, owners of the building, and Northumberland County Council to waive rent and rates for ten weeks, to allow the business to be continued to be marketed as a going concern.[10]
On 25 May 2010 it was announced that closing down sales would begin at all stores in the chain and Lewis's would close on Saturday 29 May. By this point the Dovercourt store had closed and 341 staff had been made redundant across the chain.[11] The administrators continued to negotiate with various potential purchasers, who were interested in all or part of the business. The sales were to ensure that there is sufficient cash to fund the business in the short term.[12] One of these parties was revealed to be Chris Dawson, owner of The Range, who said "I am interested in a few of the stores, parts of the group and all of the stock."[13] Tony Brown, chief executive of Beales, confirmed that he was still interested in Robbs[14] and Beales acquired Robbs on 4 June for £250,000.[15] By June 26 2010 just 4 stores remained open, and these closed within a week.[16] Both the East of England Co-operative Society The East of England Co-operative Society Limited is the third largest consumer co-operative in the United Kingdom. It is a registered Industrial and Provident Society, a member of the Co-operative Union Ltd., the Co-operative Retail Trading Group, the Co-operative Travel Trading Group and a corporate member of Co-operative Group Ltd. , the largest and the Co-operative Group offered their former employees compensation packages, despite not being legally obliged to do so.[17][18]
Stores
At its peak there were twenty Vergo stores operating in five divisions, as listed in the following table.
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Tue, 31 Aug 2010 08:52:48 GMT+00:00
St. Louis Globe-Democrat Those born on this date are under the sign of Virgo . They include the Marquis de Lafayette, French hero of the American Revolutionary War, in 1757; ...
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Union Street frontage of former Esslemont Macintosh store Aberdeen When I wrote about
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Thanks for the welcome arcsmember - I only came across the site via google when trying to find further background on . Vergo Retail. , the company that purchased P & SW non-food stores. Incidentally, the non-food purchase was announced on ...
