Treds is latest UK shoe retailer failure

By

Sandra Halliday

Published
Feb 1, 2019

With the UK suffering an almost-unprecedented wave of fashion retail business failures, the footwear sector appears to be particularly vulnerable and news has come that another small-to-medium-sized business has gone under.

Treds sells multibrand footwear, has 21 stores plus a webstore and employs 165 people. It called in Ross Connock and Zelf Hussain of PwC as joint administrators this week.

The Weymouth, Dorset-based business “has faced similar challenges to those seen across the retail sector, including changing consumer behaviour and economic uncertainty,” said Connock.

He added that this had led to reduced revenue at the firm’s stores and that “despite the best efforts of management, there was unfortunately no alternative but to place the partnership into administration.”

The problems in UK retail have been particularly acute for small businesses as more and more consumers buy from large, multinational businesses rather than small, local operations that can’t compete on price nor on services such as generous exchange policies and free online returns.

The Treds business is continuing to trade for now with all staff currently retained while the administrators “assess the trading strategy and explore any interest in the business.”

Earlier this week it emerged that Fyfo owner Miss Shoes had filed for administration with the online retailer specifically saying it had been unable to compete with bigger firms as “impulse buying” led to a huge volume of returns. 

And in November, the loss of a Clarks contract drove Bells Shoes into voluntary liquidation.