Collapse of luxury shopfitter came as debts reached almost £4m

By

Nigel TAYLOR

Published
Jan 5, 2023

Leicester-based luxury shopfitter Clements owed over £3.8 million to creditors when it called in administrators in October.

That’s according to documents seen by TheBusinessDesk.com from administrator PKF Smith Cooper. It said Clements had see a sharp rises in costs, especially materials and this resulted in  its bank HSBC withdrawing financial support.

In its latest accounts, made up to the end of June 2021, the firm said it had been impacted by the Covid-19 pandemic and that it had undergone a “comprehensive strategic review”.

Clements said it had suffered a slowdown in revenues during the period that was not matched by a reduction in overheads – although it forecast that over the course of the next two years “revenues would begin to be rebuilt”.

But it clearly didn’t have two years to mount its recovery and PKF Smith Cooper said Thad seen “significant” financial losses in 2020 and 2021 as a result of reduced demand, project delays and customer bad debt caused by the pandemic.

Clements has since closed its site in Leicester, which was sold for £2.5m, cut staff and stopped manufacturing.