The Joules board said on Monday it had “regretfully” decided to appoint administrators from Interpath Advisory to the Joules Group and three subsidiaries, including Garden Trading Company. Trading in Joules shares has been suspended. Joules, which is best known for its patterned jackets and wellies, has struggled for months with falling sales. It partly blamed these woes on the cost of living crisis and the UK’s summer heatwave, which has dampened demand for its chic winter wellies. Shares in Joules had fallen more than 95% over the past 12 months to 9.22p. the manufacture. At that price, the company’s market value was £10.3m. This compared with net debt at the end of October of £25.7m, with a £5m revolving credit facility due to be repaid on 30 November. In its statement to the stock exchange, Joules said: “The board is taking this action to protect the interests of its creditors.” These creditors are the suppliers, the owners and Barclays, its lender. Joules had about 130 stores and employed more than 1,600 people before the announcement. However, a company spokesman declined to comment on potential layoffs. The Joules Group announced last week that it was in talks with its founder, Tom Joule, and others to bring new equity investment into the company. But on Monday, Joules said a “cornerstone investment in an equity raise” fell through and it was unable to attract short-term loans while it tried to find funding from another source. Joule founded the company in 1989 after spotting a market for more colorful wellies at country fairs. Joule has made tens of millions of pounds in cash since the company’s 2016 float on London’s Aim stock exchange. The company struggled for months to find new backers. FTSE 100 retailer Next, which stocks Joules products, began talks with the company in August over a possible 25% stake, but quickly walked away. Subscribe to Business Today Get ready for the business day – we’ll point you to all the business news and analysis you need every morning Privacy Notice: Newsletters may contain information about charities, online advertising and content sponsored by external parties. For more information, see our Privacy Policy. We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and Google’s Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply. Responding to the news that Joules was planning to call in administrators, retail analyst Nick Bubb said: “There’s no doubt that Next will be ready to pick up the pieces.” The announcement did not give details of when the companies would enter administration, although it is believed that similar processes generally take between five and 10 working days.
