EUK to be wound down

Friday December 12, 2008

A skeleton staff of 375 employees will stay on at EUK to help with the process of winding down but the move means the immediate loss of 700 jobs.

Staff were told this morning that Deloitte had failed to find a buyer for EUK, after an interested party pulled out earlier in the week.

Dan Butters, joint administrator and reorganisation services partner at Deloitte, says, “Regrettably, despite our continued efforts, we have been unable to identify a suitable buyer for the business. Whilst we will continue to consider offers for the sale of the business as a going concern, we will now focus on realising value from the company’s assets.

“Unfortunately, it has been necessary to make 700 redundancies at the company’s head office and distribution centres in Middlesex. We will retain a core team of 375 employees.”

EUK was placed into administration in late November alongside Woolworths Retail, due to “cash flow problems”. Deloitte has recently started a closing down sale at Woolworths’ 800 UK shops.

EUK previously supplied entertainment products to companies such as Zavvi, Asda and Sainsbury’s.

Deloitte confirmed that Bertrams Books, a fully-owned subsidiary of EUK, and 2Entertain, a joint venture between EUK and BBC Worldwide, will continue to trade as usual.

Butters adds, “We are extremely grateful to the staff and management for their support throughout this difficult time.”