Housewares Business-to-business magazine for housewares retailers and their suppliers
The London housewares and homewares store favoured by royalty, The General Trading Company, went into administration yesterday.
The store, in the capital’s fashionable Sloane Square, has a number of Royal Warrants and is famous for running the wedding list for Prince Charles and Camilla Parker-Bowles.
Founded by the Part family in 1920, The General Trading Company was one of London’s first boutique home stores, and now sells a range of kitchenware, tableware, glassware and kitchen textiles along with furniture and home accessories.
It was one of the first stores in the UK to develop a wedding list.
The General Trading Company expanded overseas during the 1960s and ’70s, and grew in the UK with the opening of a store in Cirencester, but closed it last year.
Philip Duffy, joint administrator at MCR with Philip Duffy and Jason Godefroy, commented: “This is a world-famous department store with a strong and loyal customer base. It’s too early to determine the reasons why the company which operates the store has gone into administration and we’re concentrating on saving the business and selling the store as a going concern, thus saving a piece of history as well as the employment of those working there.
“We’re confident that there will be a significant amount of interest,” he added.
The administrators are trading the business as normal and say they expect to secure a sale soon.
