Furniture retailer Courts is mounting rescue missions at home and abroad.
In the Caribbean a disaster recovery team is being assembled to deal with the aftermath of Hurricane Ivan.
At home, the retailer intends to quit its satellite PLC head office at Victorian villa Fairlawns in Wimbledon's Parkside to combine head office personnel at its Morden base.
The lease on Fairlawns - once the residence of Queen Victoria's dentist - is up for sale. Courts pays rent of£210,000 a year on the property and the lease has six years left to run.
Courts is tackling UK supply chain problems, trialling a system that could ultimately remove the burden of stock holding and delivery from stores. A tiered commission structure is in place to encourage sales staff to sell up.
Courts' three stores in Grenada were severely damaged by Hurricane Ivan and have been looted. The 27-shop Jamaican operation was comparatively unscathed.
The retailer is launching a relief fund, CAPS, to ease the plight of staff in the region. Damage to the Caribbean businesses is not severe enough to upset local IPO plans.
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