John Pye Auctions has been appointed to handle the sale of ex-display showroom stock from Sofa Workshop which went into administration last month.
The Nottingham-based auctioneers has been brought in by the administrators to sell off a range of furniture and homewares, including 800 sofas.
As well as being appointed to sell its ex-display items, John Pye will also be handling the sale of Sofa Workshop’s trading name, website and further intellectual property
Online bidding for stock is set to begin on Friday, April 8 at John Pye’s sites at Chesterfield, in Derbyshire and Marchington, in Staffordshire. A sale at its Port Talbot base will begin on Friday, April 15.
The stock has come from Sofa Workshops’ five London stores, and 11 regional locations, including Bath, Bristol, Chichester, Guildford, Harrogate, Manchester, Newbury, Nottingham, St Albans, Thurrock and Tunbridge Wells.
Sofa Workshop went into administration earlier this month with the loss of 77 jobs.
Supply chain and transport costs had contributed to trading losses and outweighed 'significant revenues', said administrators Toby Banfield, David Baxendale and Zelf Hussain of PwC.
The company had 16 stores across the UK and operated online.
Immediately following the administration appointment, the existing customer order book was sold to Timothy Oulton United Kingdom Ltd, part of the Halo Group, which is the owner of The Sofa Workshop Limited.
No disruption to the manufacture of customer orders is expected and it has been the intention of Timothy Oulton to fulfill all existing customer orders on the terms which have previously been agreed, said the administrators.
Trevor Palethorpe, joint head of business and property at John Pye Auctions, said: “While it’s always sad to see a national retailer close its doors, it does offer the consumer a rare opportunity to purchase high quality furniture at a big discount, while also avoiding the massive delivery waiting times that have become the norm over the last two years. With us, once you have won, you can come and collect within 24 hours of payment.”
John Pye currently has more than 600,000 registered bidders in its database, with sofas regularly topping monthly searches on its website.
In previous years, it has been appointed in a similar manner by PwC, selling off Fabb Sofas’ stock following its administration announcement in 2018.
Mr Palethorpe said stock moved quickly during bidding, and he expects Sofa Workshop’s items to sell in a similar manner.
He said: “Recognised brand names such as Sofa Workshop always attract huge interest from bidders, and there’s no doubt customers that regularly keep track of our web pages will be quick to bid for this stock. We advise moving early to secure these special items at discounted prices.”
As well as being appointed to sell its ex-display items, John Pye will also be handling the sale of Sofa Workshop’s trading name, website and further intellectual property.
John Pye has 22 sites across the UK, selling a wide range of stock and assets from luxury items, home and garden, vehicles, plant and machinery, property, and more.
