Furniture retailer restored
Troubled furniture retailer Klaussner has been dramatically rescued from administration by its sister firms in Germany and the US.

The deal - announced on Friday lunchtime - will see the business retain its manufacturing plant at St Helens and re-open 34 of its 80 retail park stores.

Klaussner was bought by two subsidiaries of Klaussner Beteiligungs in Germany with financial backing from Klaussner Furniture Industries in the US.

The sale price has not been disclosed for the business, which had an annual turnover of£62 million.

Klaussner's former managing director and owner Peter Kirwan had been in discussions with the administrators to buy some of the better performing stores but talks broke down two week's ago.

The deal will mean that 46 former Klaussner retail park stores are likely to be sold. Rival firm Land of Leather last week expressed an interest in taking 'one or two stores' (see this week's Retail Week for more details).

The administrator BDO Stoy Hayward said that 200 of the 490 jobs at the business would be saved with 100 of these at the St Helens factory.

The company - which will continue to trade as Klaussner and The Sofa Company - went into administration on July 21.

Dermot Power, joint administrator at BDO Stoy Hayward, said: 'This is an excellent result for both the business and its customers. Although trading conditions remain difficult on both the high street and out of town retail parks, we wish the new business every success going forward.'

A spokesman for the administrator added that the new business would not immediately fall prey to the competition problems that had crippled the previous version of Klaussner.

He said: 'There had been endemic problems in the running of the company that had been exacerbated by competition from the Far East. As there are now fewer stores the new owners are confident of making the business a success.'