Fashion chain Joy about to collapse again

By

Sandra Halliday

Published
Jan 3, 2020

Joy, the fashion chain that had already gone under twice before, seems to be about to fail again with the company announcing its intention to appoint administrators.

It’s only two years since its founder bought it out of its last administration filing in a pre-pack deal.

The company is relatively small as it has only 10 UK stores. But the news that came just before the New Year serves as yet another reminder of just how fragile UK physical retail is at present with more administration filings expected from its peers in the weeks and months ahead.

The Times reported that the company is going to be working with KRE Corporate Recovery, the same specialist that handled its 2017 administration filing.

Joy was founded by Joy Maureen Chadha and went under for the first time in 2008, the founder buying it back and keeping 12 stores open, although almost 80 jobs were lost. 

By the time of the last administration filing just over two years ago, the company had expanded its store numbers to over 30 but it then closed 11 sites, retaining 21. Since then, many of these have closed leaving it with the current 10 store. Most are in the London area, although three are in Brighton, Bristol and Leeds. The firm employs just short of 200 people. 

It’s unclear whether Chadha might attempt to buy the firm out of administration again and what the end result would be as far as store numbers are concerned. There’s also an e-commerce website to take into account now.