Bankruptcy of the PM clothing chain: 270 employees probably lose their jobs

"The shops will remain open every week, but now the goods are sold only to carry out the mortgage.We have not managed to find a solution for the continuation of operations," said Håvard Wiker , Vice President of Nettavisen.

PM Retail, the clothing chain with 51 stores and 270 employees, went bankrupt earlier this month. The company had a turnover of 281 million NOK last year.

On the PM's website, the PM claims to have stores in several Bergen shopping centers: Kløverhuset, Oasen, Vestkanten, Sartor and Horisont.

Since then, the Wiker manager has been striving to find a new owner in the company so that activities can continue and employees can keep their jobs.

However, that did not succeed.

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Difficult times

Wednesday night, Wiker abandoned the domain in the PM. This means that as a trustee, he removes the foreclosure from bankruptcy.

"Although it is still possible that there is a solution for a later operation, but it does not look like this at the moment.It is against the closing of stores and PM employees do not want to job once the sale is over, "explains Wiker.

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"The main reason is that the times are tough for the retail business, so it was difficult to find a new investor, at the same time PM was in crisis and we do not know in which segment the company and its stores, explains Wiker.

sold

PM's items are now sold so that those with a mortgage in the company can recover some of their money. Such a sale also reduces the value of the property to a potential buyer. This means that the chances of a white knight coming to save the company and its employees are slim.

He adds that there are several reasons why it has not been possible to find a new PM Retail owner.

"We are still working on the opportunities, but there is no offer on the table, so we are in another phase." The operation that is currently taking place is not under the auspices of the estate and I'm not responsible for the stores, he says.

In 2012, the acquisition fund acquired the company with FSN capital and received the former chairman and CEO of Orkla, Dag, as chairman. However, the development was not as expected or hoped.