THE remains of the former Beales department store chain have made a trading profit of around £2.6million since administrators were called in.

The chain of 23 stores went into administration in January 2020, 139 years after the business began in Bournemouth.

Clearance sales were so busy that agency staff were hired – but they were brought to an early end by the Covid crisis.

The latest update from administrators reveals that Hilco Capital was hired as trading agent for the remaining business and was paid more than £1m.

The report, from Steve Absolom of Interpath Advisory – formerly part of KPMG –says: “Since the appointment, we have generated a trading profit of c£2.6m (after trading costs).”

Poole’s Beales store, which was reopened under a new company, New Start 2020,last summer, is selling stock from the former Beales store at Peterborough under a concession agreement.

Between January and July this year, the administrators received £46,467 of commission from stock sold in the Poole store.

“This was significantly lower than anticipated due to government-enforced closures of retail shops as a result of the continued impact of Covid-19,” the administrators’ report said.

“We are currently working with our trading agents, Hilco Capital, to establish the best strategy to take in respect of the remaining stock and maximising returns to the state,” it adds.

Mr Absolom repeated his earlier warning that there would be a “significant shortfall” for secured creditors of Beales.

Preferential creditors, mainly staff, are likely to be paid in full, while unsecured creditors will receive an amount yet to be determined.

More than 1,000 people lost their jobs when administrators closed the Beales stores.

As previously reported, the Beales brand name and intellectual property was sold for £5,000 to New Start 2020. The company’s chief executive is Tony Brown, who led the old Beales and who took control of it in a management buyout in 2018.

New Start reopened the Beales store in Poole's Dolphin Shopping Centre last summer and has since reopened the Peterborough and Southport branches.

Administrators previously reported that sales from January to July last year totalled £15.5m, with a trading surplus of almost £4.5m, but that this would reduce as bills were settled.

The administration is currently due to end on January 22 next year.