The Original Factory Shop collapsed into administration owing suppliers £9m

Sources close to the business said that a number of suppliers had been left with millions of pounds of unpaid debts following its collapse into administration last week, with one of the largest being third party supply chain and logistics provider Unipart.

Unipart signed a contract with The Original Factory Shop last summer with an eye to “making our business [TOFS] more efficient, productive and future-ready”. 

However, the contract lasted less than six months, before the two parties fell out. Unipart terminated the contract in January, and Retail Week understands it also threatened to slap TOFS with a winding-up petition to try and recoup £1m worth of unpaid debts.

A spokeswoman for Unipart confirmed that it had terminated its contract with TOFS at the start of the year, but said it “does not comment on the specific financial or operational details of any individual accounts”.

Modella Capital and Interpath both declined to comment. 

The news comes two days after Retail Week revealed that TOFS had made a third of its head office staff redundant as part of a first round of job cuts at the stricken value business.

Administrators Interpath continue to operate TOFS’ 137 UK stores, which employ 1,180 staff, although Retail Week was told by one source close to the retailer that morale on the shop floor is “absolutely on its knees”.

At the time the retailer collapsed into administration last week, TOFS chair Milton Guffogg told staff he had been left with “no choice but to put the business into administration” after eleventh-hour rescue talks for the brand collapsed.

In a call with staff, he suggested that Modella had extended the notice of intent to give interested parties “a bit more time” to make an offer.

Modella acquired TOFS and 180 of its stores in February 2025. It drafted in advisers at Interpath shortly after to explore options for the business, including a company voluntary arrangement.

Modella said at the start of the year that the company did not have a “realistic possibility of trading profitability again”, despite its “last-ditch attempt to rescue” it.

It was the second time that same week that a high street retailer had collapsed into administration, after another Modella Capital-owned brand, Claire’s, filed for insolvency on the Monday.

Fashion retailer Quiz is the latest high street casualty, having appointed administrators on Thursday (February 5), putting over 500 jobs at risk of redundancy.