Jobs at risk as Brantano goes into administration

The company has been hit hard by customers' switching from traditional 'bricks and mortar' stores to shopping on the internet.

It affects 140 stores and 60 concessions nationwide employing around 2,000 staff. The company has branches on retail parks in Cannock – which only opened in 2014 – Stafford, Walsall and Oldbury, as well as four stores in Birmingham - including one at Fort Dunlop – two in Telford and another in Shrewsbury.

The company has around 200 people working at its head office in Coalville, in Leicestershire.

Brantano and its Jones Bootmaker sister company – which is not affected by the administration – were bought by turnaround specialists Alteri Investors for £12 million in October.

But administrators from accountants PwC say that, "despite sustained efforts to make the business more commercially viable" it had experienced difficult trading conditions.

PwC's Tony Barrell, Mike Jervis and Rob Hunt were appointed as joint administrators of Brantano (UK) today.

Tony Barrell, the lead administrator at PwC, said: "The continuing challenging conditions for 'bricks and mortar' retail stores are well documented. Like many others, Brantano has been hit hard by the change in consumers' shopping habits and the evolution of the UK retail environment.

"The administrators are continuing to trade the businesses as normal whilst we assess the trading strategy over the coming days and weeks. Staff will be paid their arrears of wages and salaries, and will continue to be paid for their work during the administration."

Robert Moran, deals partner at PwC, is leading the sales process and said: "Brantano is an established value shoe retailer in the UK and Jones Bootmaker/Brantano businesses attracted considerable interest during the 2015 sales process. We are now assessing interest in the UK Brantano business as a whole or its parts and we welcome approaches from interested parties."

Brantano trades under different owners in other countries but the administration only covers the UK business, which launched in 1998 with the purchase of 47 Shoe City stores from The British Shoe Corporation.

The British business was owned by Dutch holding company Macintosh Retail Group before being sold to Alteri last year.

The original Brantano business started out in Belgium with a small factory run by André Brantegem and his brother, the sons of a cobbler. The sold women's shoes to wholesalers and retailers but the brothers seperated and in 1962 André started a retail outlet at the factory which evolved into the Brantano chain.

Brantano closed its Dutch and Danish stores in 2005, and subsequently liquidated its French stores. Macintosh took over ownership in 2007 and Brantano currently operates in Luxembourg and Belgium.