Joules owed £100m+ when it went under pre-Christmas

By

Nigel TAYLOR

Published
Jan 2, 2023

The extent of Joules’ financial woes has been revealed with the fashion retailer owing nearly £114 million before its collapse into administration on 16 November.

Joules, which was swiftly acquired by high street fashion giant Next and founder Tom Joule in early December, owed money to trade creditors, gift card holders and HMRC, among others, Business Insider reported.

Its ‘statement of affairs’ revealed it owed HMRC £3.86 million with £1.3 million due to gift card holders. Its trade creditors are owed a total of £37.7 million and include a raft of property companies and landlords, which are owed hundreds of thousands of pounds.

Joules had assets of around £22 million available to pay preferential creditors when administrators were called in.

The business, which had annual revenues of more than £200 million, suspended its shares in November after failing to find backing following months of disappointing sales.

The post-administration takeover saw Next and Joule acquire the “majority of assets of Joules” through a newly formed company for £34 million at the start of December, saving almost 1,500 jobs. Next now owns 74% of the retailer, with the remaining 26% held by Joule.