BHS pulls down shutters for last time

The remaining 22 BHS stores closed their shutters for the final time on Sunday, bringing to an end the department store’s 88-year history on the high street.

BHS began as an affordable general store in Brixton in south London in 1928 and became one of the stalwarts of the British high street. Its collapse into administration in April is the largest retail failure since Woolworths in 2008 and has left 11,000 people without jobs.

The administrators, Duff & Phelps, had already closed 141 stores in recent weeks, including its flagship Oxford Street branch in the West End of London.

Scores of bargain hunters turned up at the last BHS shops over the weekend, with queues forming outside some branches on Sunday. Some shoppers snapped up heavily discounted goods, while others walked away empty-handed, disappointed by what was left. Several people said it was a sad day and that they would miss the department store. The stores were largely stripped of merchandise, shelves and other fittings and several branches shut before the official closing time.

While staff oversaw the last of the closing-down sales, former BHS owner Sir Philip Green continued his holiday in the Mediterranean on board his new €117m super yacht, Lionheart.

The Labour MP Frank Field, a fierce critic of Green, renewed his attack on the billionaire, accusing him of asset stripping at BHS. Field, who chairs the parliamentary work and pensions committee, told Sky that he stood by his description of Green as “evil”.

He accused the retail tycoon of “plundering” the company. “What he turns out to be is a sort of asset stripper,” Field said.

Green owned BHS for 15 years before selling it to former bankrupt Dominic Chappell for £1 in 2015. Green has come under fire for taking more than €468m in dividends from the now defunct department store chain and for selling it to a man without retail experience.

A damning report from the work and pensions and the business, innovations and skills committees found last month that BHS was subject to “systematic plunder” by Green, Chappell and their hangers-on, and labelled Green the “unacceptable face of capitalism”.

Chappell is planning to put his personal business into administration this week and is restructuring his assets, in an attempt to avoid a substantial tax bill and to protect his cash from investigations into the failure of BHS.

This will further enrage BHS staff. Chappell, a former racing driver, has lined up David Rubin & Partners as the administrator of Swiss Rock Ltd., his personal business, which means he could walk away from its debts, which are thought to include a tax bill on his earnings from BHS. Swiss Rock was paid at least £1.6m by BHS and its parent company as part of his acquisition of the retailer.

Chappell’s consortium, Retail Acquisitions, which bought BHS last year, received at least €19.9m from BHS during the 13 months of its ownership.

Green wants assurances that regulators will drop their investigation into BHS’s €668m pension deficit if he makes a voluntary contribution, estimated at at least €351m. The Pensions Regulator launched an anti-avoidance probe shortly after the retail tycoon sold BHS to Chappell.

Field said it would be “great to get a settlement which ensures no one takes a pension cut, but that’s not the end of the story”.

Thousands of people have been left in limbo over their pensions, and could lose up to 10% of their retirement pots. It could be months before they get clarity. About 22,000 pensions are estimated to be affected.