Mattressman to Close 14 Stores Across UK

Norfolk retailer, Mattressman are planning to close more than half of its stores due to a collapse in sales. As a consequence, 130 jobs are at risk as stores in Coventry, Manchester and 12 more (full list at bottom of page) in surrounding areas are being targeted for closure.

In a bid to save and improve rates of sale, the company is retreating back to East Anglia and the Midlands after an unsuccessful period of expansion. The stores that will remain open in these areas are the Norwich, North Walsham, Lowestoft, Dereham, Thetford and March branches.

The remaining stores are part of the company voluntary arrangement (CVA) – a restructuring process which enables a company to eliminate unprofitable stores and reduce rent in order to continue trading. This procedure is being managed by liquidation specialists McTear Williams and Wood who shall put the proposal to creditors to vote on.

Mattressman will carry on trading and has said that all of their outstanding orders should be completed, however where this is not possible, customers shall receive their money back.

The Norfolk born company thanks every employee for their service, loyalty and hard work particularly in the run up to and during this difficult time.

Andrew Kerry, Director at Mattressman said:

“Unfortunately sometimes in business you have to go backwards to go forwards. The CVA will enable us to remodel our business to match the changing retail environment. We have always been very successful online and we are going to concentrate on that and smaller stores in East Anglia which have always worked well. All our staff are focused on delivering business as usual and we are optimistic about the future.”

They have ran into numerous complications over the last 12 months which in turn resulted in a 15% drop in like-for-like sales in April and May, turning a £1.1m profit in 2017 into a £2.6m loss for the year to March 31.

Stores closing by 2^nd July 2018:

Ipswich, Coventry, Rotherham, Leicester, Lincoln, Manchester, Birmingham, Nottingham, Corby, Chingford, Isle of Wight, Thanet, Milton Keynes and York.