Bensons for Beds buys 19 Carpetright stores

Furniture chain Bensons for Beds has bought 19 Carpetright stores after the flooring retailer collapsed into administration in July.

It said it hopes to create job opportunities for former Carpetright staff when the shops reopen under the Bensons brand.

Carpetright went bust after slower customer demand and a cyber attack in April which hit restructuring plans.

It employed more than 1,800 people and had 273 stores across the UK before it went into insolvency.

Carpetright's brand, intellectual property, 54 of its stores and two warehouses were bought by rival Tapi weeks later.

But Carpetright's collapse led to the closure of more than 200 of its other stores and redundancy for more than 1,000 employees.

Bensons chief executive Nick Collard said increasing the number of its stores was a priority for the furniture retailer.

It wants to bump up the number from 162 shops at present to more than 200 over the next few years.

This is despite bosses at Bensons highlighting "challenging" conditions for the sale of more expensive furniture items.

Mr Collard said Bensons had been gaining market share after returning to profitability in 2023, "reflecting the hard work from all our colleagues across the organisation".

He added that buying the Carpetright stores "leaves us well placed when the wider market starts to recover".

PwC joint administrator Rachael Wilkinson said: "We're pleased to have reached an agreement for the sale of 19 former Carpetright stores to Bensons for Beds, and echo their hopes that the transaction will create future employment opportunities for former Carpetright employees."

Carpetright was founded in 1988, and ran into trouble in April when sales slumped following a cyber-attack that put it's online ordering system out of action.

But it had been struggling with slowing consumer demand for some time.

In July the boss of Tapi said he was "desperately sad" not to have been able to save more customer orders and jobs.