Clintons has been forced to reach out to landlords to seek concessions on store closures and rent cuts, as the greetings card chain becomes the latest high street retailer to suffer.
Chief executive Eddie Shepherd held a town hall meeting with landlords on Friday, where he said Clintons wants to close 66 of its 332 stores and demanded rent cuts for more than 200 others.
Restructuring documents seen by The Sunday Telegraph said a further “90 of the company’s stores are currently loss-making with the business forecasting that sales will continue to decline
The retailer is looking to switch a number of its rent deals to payments based on store performance and would only pay full market rents on a small proportion of its estate.
The plans could lead to Clintons launching a CVA to allow it to close loss-making stores and slash rents.
Clintons drafted in KPMG to advise on its financial situation and the potential of selling the business in September.
The business review came after the retailer closed dozens of stores in previous years and posted losses of £14m for its last financial year.
The news about Clintons follows the collapse of the UK-trading arm of the Mothercare, which jettisoned 79 loss-making stores and more than 2,5000 high street roles last week.
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