There is a fear a number of high street retailers could be struck by yet another wave of administrations today, as quarterly rental invoices are due. Today is the day quarterly rents for commercial property should be paid and there has been a warning from a leading insolvency expert, who is concerned the latest commercial property rentals could be the final straw for some companies.
English quarter days fall in March, June, September and December and we have previously seen a number of high profile retail companies, forced into liquidation following these quarter days. Zavvi Entertainment Group Ltd, entered liquidation shortly after the September quarter day of 2009 and high street chain Woolworth’s was placed into administration following the September quarter day, back in 2008.
The concern is, with consumers cutting back on their spending and the snow, which affected trading some months ago, many more businesses could go the way of Zavvi and Woolworths and cease to exist.
Frances Coulson, president of insolvency trade body R3, said: ‘Trading conditions have clearly been extremely tough for many retailers since 2008, and after hanging on through the worst of the recession, the heavy snow that we all endured through the winter could well turn out to be the straw that breaks the camel’s back…A lot of firms would have drawn together the last of their resources to make it past the March payment date. The latest fall in retail sales shows that there has been little obvious improvement over the last three months, and we could be about to see another swathe of retailers reaching the end of the road when the quarterly rental payments fall due.’
Should Mr Coulson’ prediction come true, it will come as a body blow for the commercial property market, which has recently been making steps towards recovery. Such losses of rental will have an extremely negative impact on the market as whole, especially the retail commercial property market.
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