Fired Earth administration: 133 people made redundant as interiors chain goes bust
A high-end tiling and interiors firm has gone bust - with shops across the country shutting and 133 people losing their jobs.
Fired Earth specialises in luxury interior design products, specifically tiles. It had 20 showrooms across the UK, including Cheltenham, Truro, Bristol and Clapham in south London, and also supplied 22 independent stores with its products.
The only parts of the business that remain open are the head office and warehouse in Banbury which will fulfil any orders already placed. Customers will be contacted about these soon.
Dane O’Hara and Neil Bennett from financial recovery and restructuring firm Leonard Curtis were appointed joint administrators to Fired Earth on Friday, but have delivered the bad news that the company is unsalvageable.
Mr O’Hara said: “Fired Earth has been loss making for some time. In the last three years the company has been supported by its shareholder via substantial working capital loans, while efforts were made to return the business to profitability.
“Unfortunately, the company has continued to incur trading losses, and its investor was not prepared to provide further funding to the business in the absence of a viable turnaround strategy.”
The joint administrators said that negotiations have started to sell the business assets to third party via an accelerated M & A (AMA) process, but that did not include staff, and so all 133 workers at the firm will be made redundant.
Leonard Curtis says it was approached in late September to look at the business and explore options, but says it was not possible to restructure it in its current form and the decision was made to seek a buyer.
Mr O’Hara said added: “We had multiple offers on an asset only basis, but we have not received a proceedable offer that preserves any of the locations or staff as a consequence.”