McCann Birmingham wins Courts ‘clearance’

McCann Erickson Birmingham has been appointed to handle an advertising push to clear Courts’ stock before the brand disappears altogether. No buyer has been found for the chain.

The agency has been given the brief by SB Capital Europe, the retail investment turnaround specialist that has been appointed as agent by the administrators KPMG to trade and wind down the bulk of the Courts stores by February. SB Capital, owner of Furnitureland, has an option to buy 14 of the 88 Courts stores, representing 20 per cent of its retail turnover. If it does buy them, the stores will be rebranded Furnitureland.

Two-thirds of the staff at Courts headquarters were made redundant on Monday and the remainder will help clear the stock and deal with customer issues. It is thought that marketing director Mike Ryan will be among those kept on for the short term.

Courts went into administration last month, bringing to an end the review of its &£20m advertising account out of RPM3 (MW November 18).

Up to 50,000 customers who had handed over money to the furniture retailer had yet to receive their goods when the company went bust owing &£280m.

They are being asked to call into stores to discuss their options before the doors open again to clear stock on December 16.

SB Capital Europe specialises in acquiring retail turnaround opportunities across Europe and bought 21 Furnitureland stores in January and half of the 70 Land of Leather stores in June.