Creditors of closed independent furniture retailer Ashton Discount Warehouse are set to suffer a deficit of over £200,000 after the company entered administration.

Beverley Budsworth, of The Debt Advisor Limited, was appointed as administrator of Ashton Discount Warehouse Limited on 14 July 2022.

Prior to the appointment, the company, which operated from its store on Stamford Street in Ashton-Under-Lyne, launched a closing down sale at the start of July with the owners retiring after almost 60 years in the trade.

In a statement over social media, the company, which sold dining and living room furniture, beds, mattresses and bathroom furniture, said: “After 58 years in business in Ashton we have decided to close for retirement. This was a difficult decision to be made, as we have enjoyed our time in Ashton.

“This will be our final sale and once everything is gone, we will be closing the doors. We would like to thank all our customers that have bought from us over the years.”

Following the appointment of administrators, new documents filed on Companies House detailed £250,000 being owed to unsecured creditors, including £73,000 owed to trade claims, around £50,000 owed to Barclays bank and almost £2,000 owed to customer related items.

As for secured creditor, the HMRC, it is owed £75,000, which is expected to be repaid from company assets valuing around £90,000.

It is therefore understood that unsecured creditors are facing a shortfall of £242,000.

In the build up to its administration, the company incurred a decline in both revenues and profit, with losses for 2020 reaching £36,000, widening from a loss of £29,000 the previous year. Sales for that year resulted at £767,000, down from £900,000 in 2019, and further still from its sales of £1m achieved in 2018.

The company suffered from a significant decrease in footfall and revenue, which lead to its eventual downfall, with administration the only option to ‘maximise realisations from the closing down sale’. This raised a total of £81,000.