Housewares firm saves department store jobs

Lewis’s Home Retail, a company associated with Speke-based homewares group Benross, has acquired TJ Hughes’ flagship store in Liverpool, as well as those in Eastbourne, Glasgow and Sheffield.

The deal will see all employees in these stores transfer to Lewis’s Home Retail, said administrators Ernst & Young.

Liverpool-based TJ Hughes called in the administrators in June – putting 4,000 jobs at risk– after a difficult period of trading, as nervous consumers postponed buying “big-ticket” items such as fridges and TVs. Ernst & Young said it was still trying to sell the company’s remaining business and assets, including 53 other stores.

TJ Hughes is one of several retailers to suffer in the UK’s current consumer spending squeeze.

Habitat and fashion chain Jane Norman recently went into administration, while the likes of HMV and JJB Sports are shutting down stores across the UK.

Benross, also Liverpool based, supplies housewares, electrical, lighting, toys and leisure products to retailers across the UK. Lewis’s is its retail arm.

The firm was founded in Liverpool in 1912 by Thomas Hughes and most stores are in the North of England.

It was previously owned by private equity group Silverfleet, which bought the company for around £70m in 2003.