Hotter Shoes Restructure

Electra Private Equity PLC

Hotter Shoes Restructure

19 June 2020

Electra Private Equity PLC announces that its portfolio company, Hotter Shoes (Hotter), intends to restructure via a company voluntary arrangement (CVA) process.

Following the emergence of the Covid-19 pandemic, the management of Hotter has been in discussion with a number of its retail landlords to seek agreement to reduce the number of stores to a level and cost that allows Hotter to remain viable. Individual discussions have been unsuccessful in obtaining the required level of agreement to allow Hotter to continue on a viable basis and as such Hotter will be entering into a CVA process in the coming days. If the CVA proposal is approved and successfully implemented, it will leave a trading estate of 15 shops.

In parallel with this process, Hotter has entered into formal consultation with a number of employees at its Skelmersdale head office that may lead to a number of redundancies.

Neil Johnson, Electra Private Equity PLC Chairman, commented:

"Before the pandemic hit, Hotter, under new Chief Executive Ian Watson, was making good progress to accelerate the implementation of a digitisation strategy to return it to its direct marketing routes. The need for these actions has been intensified by the consequences of the past 3 months of lockdown. If successful, the proposed CVA will result in fewer stores, which will secure the future of a smaller, sustainable business and will save over 350 jobs. I would like to thank all our colleagues at Hotter for their continued understanding at this difficult time".

Enquiries

Gavin Manson, Chief Financial & Operating Officer, Electra Private Equity PLC, 020 3874 8300