More than £2.8m was owed by the wholesale arm of a fashion company run by Real Housewives star Seema Malhotra and her husband Sandeep when it entered liquidation, new documents have revealed.
Forever Unique Limited, which was based in Manchester, had an estimated total deficiency of £2.822m. The business says it was hit by the Covid-19 crisis and that the brand will now focus on selling direct to customers.
The documents were filed by Cowgill Holloway Business Recovery with Companies House after the firm had been appointed as liquidator on March 24.
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That was before the business changed its name from Forever Unique Limited to Wholesale Clothing UK Limited on April 4.
According to the Companies House documents, the business owed sole director Sandeep Malhotra more than £1.36m, £300,000 of which came from a third party loan.
Other creditors included more than £483,000 to HMRC and almost £200,000 to Pre Retail Services UK in Ashton-under-Lyme.
The majority of the company's assets was £857,000 which had been provided by HSBC as part of the Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme (CBILS) and an overdraft.
The business now called Wholesale Clothing UK was incorporated in May 2015 as Forever Unique.
A previous business called Forever Unique had been set up in 1996 as Ace Video-Tech and then called Poetic Justice from 2003. It was renamed as Forever Unique in 2009 before it was dissolved in October 2012.
Mrs Malhotra is not a director or shareholder of the wholesale side of the business.
A spokesperson for Forever Unique said: "The brand has always traded under two separate legal entities (wholesale and retail).
"It is with regret that we have had to close down Forever Unique Ltd, the wholesale side of the business.
"Sadly, like so many fashion retailers during Covid, all of our forward orders from independent stores/international customers across our distribution network were cancelled instantly, leaving us with unfulfilled orders.
"Post pandemic, the wholesale arm of the brand was slow to pick up and has since closed. As a result, we have decided to focus our efforts on trading direct to our consumers."
The Forever Unique brand is still trading through Dress Me Online Ltd, which is also registered in Manchester.
Seema and Sandeep Malhotra established the brand in 2008 and its clothes have been worn by the likes of Holly Willoughby and Kate Middleton.
According to its website, Forever Unique is a luxury fashion brand specialising in ladies occasion wear.
The website adds the business has "paved the way for accessible and affordable designer fashion", being a "go-to brand for celebrities on the red carpet and empowering women through the power of beautiful clothes".
