WH Smith has been accused of leaving its High Street stores ‘almost completely broken’ before they were sold to a private equity firm last year.
The allegation was made by Alex Willson, boss of the business now known as TG Jones and owned by Modella Capital.
Willson said shops had ‘missing lightbulbs, threadbare carpets with holes in’ as well as ‘missing ceiling tiles’ and ‘lifts and escalators that don’t work’.
Modella bought the business for £40m last year and has itself faced sharp criticism over its running of the business as it plans a swathe of store closures.
‘Slow death’: WH Smith has been accused of leaving its High Street stores ‘almost completely broken’ before they were sold to a private equity firm last year
But in an interview with the Financial Times, Willson blamed its struggles on the previous owner, saying that its decision to focus on profits rather than investing in its future had led to its ‘slow death’.
He said his first impression upon taking the reins in April was ‘the huge scale of under-investment over many years’. However, Willson insisted that it was ‘definitely’ still possible to turn around the business.
A source close to WH Smith – which is focused on travel-based stores in airports and railway stations after offloading its High Street arm – said all bidders for the stores had full access to information about the business before they bought it.
Willson’s comments about the dismal state of WH Smith’s old stores are only likely to add to the dismay among shoppers and workers about the fate of what was once one of the best-known retail brands across town and city centres – with a history dating back to 1792.
Modella recently revealed that it plans to shut up to 150 of its remaining 450 shops. The scheme, which includes slashing rents at surviving TG Jones stores, comes after the collapse of Modella-owned Claire’s Accessories and The Original Factory Shop this year.
Both were put into administration with the loss of nearly 2,500 jobs just months after being taken over by the group.
The carnage has raised questions over Modella’s retail know-how.
And it faces questions about the fees it is charging TG Jones to use the much-derided name after the disastrous rebranding failed to revive its fortunes.
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