{"id":676125,"date":"2026-01-05T20:08:13","date_gmt":"2026-01-05T20:08:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/676125\/"},"modified":"2026-01-05T20:08:13","modified_gmt":"2026-01-05T20:08:13","slug":"claires-uk-and-tofs-in-administration-say-reports","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/676125\/","title":{"rendered":"Claire’s UK and TOFS in administration say reports"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n Published<\/b>
\n <\/p>\n

January 5, 2026<\/p>\n

\n It\u2019s something of an unwelcome tradition that the New Year usually brings with it news of weakened retailers being on the verge of collapse. And it hasn\u2019t taken too many days for 2026\u2019s potential casualties to become known.<\/p>\n

\"\" Claire’s<\/p>\n

On Monday evening, Sky News reported that discounter The Original Factory Shop (TOFS) and Claire\u2019s UK and Ireland were at risk, the report coming only a few months after Claire\u2019s was rescued. Within hours, the BBC had reported that the chains would definitely go into administration<\/p>\n

The news also comes the week after LK Bennett was said to be on the brink as well and hunting a last-minute buyer to rescue it.<\/p>\n

The two retailers at the centre of Monday’s stories are both major names in the UK and between them employ around 2,500 people.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Sky said the two chains \u201care understood to be filing notices of intention to appoint administrators\u201d to gain temporary protection from creditors. The BBC said the intention had been confirmed by their owner.<\/p>\n

With around 300 stores between them, the struggling businesses are both owned by investment firm Modella Capital and had both already been through major restructurings last year.<\/p>\n

Modella acquired TOFS in the spring and the Claire\u2019s UK and Ireland business only in September.<\/p>\n

So why are they still struggling? The news reports blamed tax increases and \u201cdemands from landlords to take back swathes of Claires’ and TOFS’ shops\u201d, as well as very poor Christmas trading for the latest development with the external pressures having \u201crendered the future of both chains in their current forms unviable\u201d.<\/p>\n

Sky added that Interpath Advisory, which ran TOFS\u2019 CVA last year, is expected to handle the chain\u2019s administration with Kroll doing the same for Claire\u2019s.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s believed that the administrators will continue operating the two businesses while buyers are sought.<\/p>\n

Modella had carved out a niche \u00a0as one of the key buyers of distressed businesses in the UK and also owns Hobbycraft and WH Smith\u2019s high street business (now renamed TG Jones).\u00a0<\/p>\n

But it may have bitten off more than it could chew with the TOFS and Claire\u2019s purchases as these businesses both had very specific issues that created extra complications. Sky said for TOFS, a \u201cshift to a new third-party logistics provider is thought to have contributed to its challenges following last year’s deal\u201d.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile the largest concession partner of Claire\u2019s had decided to end its link after Modella took over.\n <\/p>\n

\n Copyright \u00a9 2026 FashionNetwork.com All rights reserved.\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Published January 5, 2026 It\u2019s something of an unwelcome tradition that the New Year usually brings with it…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":676126,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,4],"tags":[952,748,108293,393,2584,4884,103837,15909,5775,1144,15910,712,16,15,1764],"class_list":{"0":"post-676125","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-uk","8":"category-united-kingdom","9":"tag-beauty","10":"tag-britain","11":"tag-claires","12":"tag-england","13":"tag-fashion","14":"tag-great-britain","15":"tag-l-k-bennett","16":"tag-luxury","17":"tag-network","18":"tag-northern-ireland","19":"tag-professionals","20":"tag-scotland","21":"tag-uk","22":"tag-united-kingdom","23":"tag-wales"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115844304541334715","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/676125","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=676125"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/676125\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/676126"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=676125"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=676125"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=676125"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}