Battle shop closed as firm calls in administrators

Steve Absolom and Will Wright of KPMG LLP were appointed joint administrators of Steamer Trading Limited last week.

A total of 27 branches of Steamer Trading Cookshop were sold to rival housewares retailer ProCook, but 10 underperforming stores, including the branch in Battle High Street, were earmarked for closure.

A spokesperson for KPMG said: “There are 10 underperforming stores which are not part of the sale and will close immediately.

“These closures unfortunately result in 79 job losses.”

The 10 Steamer Trading branches that will close immediately are Battle, Heathfield, Westerham, Dorking, Bluewater, Taunton, Wells, Cambridge, Glasgow and Bournemouth.

Steve Absolom, restructuring partner at KPMG in the UK and joint administrator, added: “Whilst it is always pleasing to preserve a significant number of jobs, sadly a number of redundancies are to be made at the 10 closed stores.

“Over the coming days, our priority is to ensure all employees who have been affected by redundancy receive the information and guidance they need in order to claim monies owed from the Redundancy Payments Office.”