By James Davey and Kate Holton

LONDON (Reuters) - British department stores group BHS was placed into administration on Monday, putting the 88-year-old retailer in danger of disappearing from the high street and placing 11,000 jobs at risk.

Once a mainstay of the British high street, BHS has been in decline for years, unable to keep up with demand for fast fashion, online sales and improved customer services.

BHS employs about 8,000 people, while a further 3,000 contractors work with the company's 164 stores. Going into administration, a form of creditor protection, means it is Britain's most high-profile retail casualty since Phones4U in 2014 and Woolworths in 2008.

It could also increase scrutiny of BHS's former owner Philip Green, the billionaire retail boss who sold the firm for one pound last year to a collection of little known investors. He bought it for 200 million pounds in 2000.

With a pension deficit of 571 million pounds, the pensions regulator is investigating whether previous owners sought to avoid their obligations.

"The group will continue to trade as usual whilst the administrators seek to sell it as a going concern," said Philip Duffy and Benjamin Wiles, managing directors of restructuring firm Duff & Phelps who have been appointed joint administrators.

BHS had in March won the support of its creditors for a rescue plan that gave it big cuts to its rent bill.

However, saddled with over 1 billion pounds of debt, including the pension deficit, BHS failed to raise the additional funds it required, particularly from planned asset sales, to meet all its contractual payments, prompting the administration process.

'SERIOUS QUESTIONS TO ANSWER'

The regulator has said it now wants to investigate how the pension scheme was run. BHS had been engaged in a 23-year recovery plan to pay down the deficit, a plan that has been criticised by pension consultants for being too long.

"Let us see what conclusions the regulator comes to ... If there's any suggestions of impropriety we will come after people," business minister Anna Soubry told Parliament.

Angela Eagle, business spokeswoman for the opposition Labour party, said Green had "serious questions to answer".

"BHS staff and the public will understandably want to know whether the former owner...will have to pay his fair share of the liabilities which accrued during his stewardship."

Green could not be immediately reached for comment.

Independent pensions consultant John Ralfe said BHS represents a crucial test case for the Pension Regulator.

"The regulator will want to lay down a marker and make it absolutely clear that you can't sell a subsidiary with a pension deficit for a pound and for that not to have any consequences," he said.

The scheme is now in the hands of the government-backed Pension Protection Fund (PPF). With a surplus of 3.6 billion pounds the PPF can afford to take on the BHS scheme but such a move can lead to members losing a proportion of their income.

The pension scheme of Woolworths, the variety store retailer, also had recourse to the fund in 2012.

Analysts see little prospect of a buyer emerging for BHS, given the difficulty Green had in finding suitors.

They say the most likely scenario is that BHS's assets will be sold off piecemeal. That will likely mean the BHS name, like Woolworths and Comet before it, disappearing from Britain's shopping districts.

(Additional reporting by Elizabeth Piper, editing by Greg Mahlich, Keith Weir and Susan Thomas)

Compel wrote:Yeah, it's a big deal but...

I can't help but think that the store really hasn't been, well, relevant since I dunno, the 90's? Maybe early 2000's.

welshhoppo wrote:Agreed. I worked there from 2008-2013 and you could tell nothing was being done to improve the stores.

It wasn't actually the fault of the staff, my store had to beg for over a decade to get a new paint job and funds for a new layout. They couldn't afford to finish it so we had to keep the interior walls, all 70s Beige with metal strips across them to hang bars off.....

Do_I_Not_Like_That wrote:HS has been stuck in a wierd time warp for years. You walk into one of their stores, and it's like the internet never existed.

 Silent Puffin? wrote:
I don't think I have ever been to one.

 Mr. Burning wrote:

If you have a granny or went to town with your old nan and grampie you have definitely been in one!

 Kilkrazy wrote:
I very much doubt Green is stupid enough to have done anything illegal, however there is an odour of asset stripping around his involvement.

BHS obviously would not be in such a bad state today if it had the £400+ M that he took out. It could have been used for investment in the shops and internet back end, and to reduce the liability of the pension fund.

 Kilkrazy wrote:
It's a sign of multiple trends in retailing: the rise of the internet shop, competition from low-price brands like Primark and Uniqlo, competition from more competent brands like John Lewis. and the decline in retail over the past eight years caused by the recession. (Unexpectedly bad retail figures were announced fairly recently.)

 Mr. Burning wrote:

 Kilkrazy wrote:
I very much doubt Green is stupid enough to have done anything illegal, however there is an odour of asset stripping around his involvement.

BHS obviously would not be in such a bad state today if it had the £400+ M that he took out. It could have been used for investment in the shops and internet back end, and to reduce the liability of the pension fund.

I agree, but there is nothing the papers like better than a bit of muck raking.

For that 400m to have any impact their would have needed to be big changes at the top of BHS, a desire to reform the firm and make it competitive. Green saw an opportunity, and it played out for him to get some cash. If BHS had totally failed under his stewardship (arguably it was going down the pan anyway) he's got a vehicle for debt and prime property he can leverage.

Austin Reed enters administration putting 1,200 jobs at risk

Menswear retailer Austin Reed has entered administration, putting almost 1,200 jobs at risk.

A statement from the administrators blamed a "challenging" retail market and cash flow difficulties.

The company, which has 100 standalone stores and is stocked in a further 50, has struggled to compete and has seen its sales fall.

Austin Reed began in 1900 as a tailor and counted Winston Churchill as a customer.

"Austin Reed is a well-regarded and iconic brand," said Peter Saville, one of the newly appointed administrators. "We are confident that it is an attractive proposition for a range of potential buyers."

The menswear brand is the second UK retailer to enter administration in as many days, following the failure of BHS.
'Inconsistent'

But retail analysts say the firm has failed to keep pace with its competitors.

"The company's offer has been inconsistent, the ranges have been poor and the stores have looked rather tired," said Rupert Eastell, head of retail at business advisers RSM.

"Perhaps most disappointingly, the website is not good enough by today's' standards."

Austin Reed was bought just last week by the distressed retail specialists Alteri Investors, who purchased the struggling firm for an undisclosed sum.

The new owners had already loaned the company £6m last year to improve its online operations and purchase new stock.

But on Friday the firm announced that it was intending to appoint administrators, though Austin Reed remains a going concern.
Resistance fighters

The company was last listed on the London Stock Exchange in 2006, when it was taken private by an investment firm for £49m.

Austin Reed started as a tailoring business in the City of London more than a century ago, selling off-the-rack suits which could pass muster as made to measure.

It had a concession on the transatlantic liner, the Queen Elizabeth, and supplied clothing for special agents and resistance fighters during World War Two.

The Austin Reed group currently employs a total of 1,184 staff.

"Our priority now is to work with all stakeholders and determine the optimum route forward for the business as we continue to serve customers throughout the UK and Ireland," said Mr Saville of Alix Partners.

If the administrators can not sell the business as a going concern, it may be broken up to raise cash for creditors.

The former BHS owner, Dominic Chappell, says he is preparing a bid to buy BHS out of administration.
He told the BBC the administrators had been informed and talks with US based investors were at a "mature" stage.
However, a senior retail source also informed the BBC they were "extremely sceptical" about the move, given Mr Chappell's recent track record.
BHS went into administration on Monday, putting 11,000 jobs at risk.
So far the administrators of BHS have received 50 expressions of interest in the company - some for all of it, most for parts of it.
Mr Chappell said he was interested in buying the whole group minus 40 loss-making stores, now that the pension fund is to be taken over by the Pension Protection Fund (PPF).
"Our hands have been untied now that the pension situation has been resolved," he told the BBC.
Is Dominic Chappell's BHS bid serious?
BHS: Where has all the money gone?
Sir Philip Green: From 'King of the High Street' to 'Unacceptable Face of Capitalism'
'What we'll miss if BHS closes'
Mr Chappell is the majority shareholder of Retail Acquisitions which bought BHS for £1 last year from Sir Philip Green, and took on a £571m pension deficit.
On Tuesday last week he moved £1.5m to a company called BHS Sweden, unconnected to BHS, which was owned by a friend and fellow board member of Mr Chappell at Retail Acquisitions.
On learning of this, BHS chief executive Darren Topp demanded its return on Wednesday and on Thursday it was returned minus £50,000, to reflect, said Mr Chappell, the foreign exchange costs.
'Trade as usual'
Meanwhile, Sir Philip Green has been asked to appear in front of a cross-party committee of MPs to face questions about BHS' collapse and the impact it might have on the PPF, which will now have to take over the BHS pension liabilities.
One Labour MP John Mann, and member of the Treasury select committee, has said Sir Philip must repay £400m of dividends that were paid out of BHS, or give up his knighthood.
The pensions regulator is also investigating whether BHS's previous owners sought to avoid their obligations.
The shops continue to operate as normal and on Tuesday reported their strongest day of trading since the business was acquired by Retail Acquisitions. Trading was up 80% compared to the same day last year.
Restructuring firm Duff & Phelps, who have been appointed joint administrators, said in a statement: "The group will continue to trade as usual whilst the administrators seek to sell it as a going concern."

 zedmeister wrote:
Cheeky fether. Run the business into the ground, get the taxpayer to pick up the tab and buy it back free of any commitments.