The administrators who rescued a high street fashion chain from insolvency have appointed CAPA to audit more than 80 of the company’s stores.
KPMG instructed CAPA after completing a sale of Kast Retail Ltd (KRL) – a subsidiary of AIM-listed fashion retailer Quiz – in a move that safeguarded more than 800 jobs.
Headquartered in Glasgow, KRL operated 82 Quiz Clothing leasehold retail stores across the UK and Ireland.
Like other high street fashion retailers, KRL had experienced trading difficulties including falling footfall, declining average customer spend and rising operating costs. Earlier this year the group closed all KRL stores, with the majority of staff placed on furlough.
To fund trading losses, KRL had received financial support from the wider Quiz group and in recent months, the directors had undertaken an exhaustive process to preserve the KRL business, but ultimately, administration was unavoidable.
But upon their appointment as joint administrators on June 10, Blair Nimmo and Alistair McAlinden of KPMG were able to sell the business to Zandra Retail, a subsidiary of Quiz, and save 822 jobs.
KPMG has now instructed CAPA, which will involve CAPA’s audit team using bespoke software to carry out a forensic analysis of all property costs through 81 stores KRL operated from.
The team will inspect the data on rates, utility bills, and property service management costs, to uncover any anomalies or errors, before recovering any overpaid sums for the fashion chain’s creditors.
