The consortium, Erewash Upholstery Limited, has bought 10 of the retailer’s stores, saving 50 jobs.
The remaining 20 stores and the head office have been closed immediately with the “consequent and unavoidable loss of jobs”, according to Leonard Curtis, which was appointed as administrator last week.
“It is unfortunate that we have not been able to save more of the original jobs,” said joint administrator Neil Bennett of Leonard Curtis.
“But what is important is that we are ensuring the completion of all current customer orders - all of which will be taken on by the new business.”
The saved stores are: Bath, Bristol, Exeter, Guildford, Kingston, Tunbridge Wells, Battersea, Chiswick, King’s Road and Tottenham Court Road.
Bennett added: “The business had suffered in the current economic climate. People are neither moving nor are they investing in larger items of new furniture. The new slimmed-down organisation, backed by website and mail order seems to be the right business model for the times.”
Sofa Workshop was founded in 1985 by Cussons with venture-capital backing. He made£6m when he sold Sofa Workshop in 2002 to MFI for£12.25m.
Furniture retailer New Heights then bought Sofa Workshop from MFI, which collapsed into administration in late 2008, for£1.8m in October 2006.
New Heights appointed an administrator in May 2008.
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