Bodycare to shut more Scottish stores while administrators seek rescue sale

Bodycare has announced the closure of another 30 shops after the high street beauty chain collapsed into administration earlier this month.

The British retailer said the latest set of closures would be on Tuesday and Thursday this week – with Greenock and Dunfermline sites to shut.

That takes the total of Scottish store closures to ten.

A shortage of stock and the cost of running high street shops has meant it is no longer viable to keep all the remaining 115 stores open, administrators said.

About 235 staff working across the stores will be made redundant, the company said.

The latest closures will leave the chain with 85 remaining shops.

Bodycare appointed administrators from Interpath on September 5, saying it had come under pressure from rising costs and a shortfall in funding, which also impacted supplier relationships and led to stock shortages.

At the time, it announced it was shutting 32 stores, resulting in around 450 redundancies.

Nick Holloway, managing director at Interpath and joint administrator, said on Monday: “We’d like to express our sincere thanks to the hundreds of dedicated Bodycare staff who have shown such professionalism since our appointment.

“We will continue to trade the remaining 85 stores while we remain in discussions with interested parties with the aim of preserving as much of the business as possible.”

Interpath is currently pursuing a potential rescue sale of the business and assets.

The company said it had received interest from a number of parties in relation to the stores.

Bodycare was founded in 1970 in Lancashire and sells beauty products, as well as fragrances and other bathroom items.