The voluntary administrators of Harris Scarfe, Deloitte Restructuring Services, have granted exclusivity to the Spotlight Group to buy the business, following a “vigorous due diligence process” which saw four parties shortlisted.
Harris Scarfe entered voluntary administration on 11 December 2019 and one month later, the receivers announced the closure of 21 stores across the country to prepare the business for a sale process. The store closures impacted 401 staff members – 70% have been redeployed, obtained alternative roles outside the group or are in an active application process.
With this latest announcement, the receivers are seeking to secure the ongoing employment of circa 1,300 Harris Scarfe staff across 44 stores but it will depend on the transaction progress.
In a statement shared with Appliance Retailer, Deloitte said as a family-owned, longstanding and highly experienced Australasian retailer with a large property portfolio, Spotlight is ideally suited to enabling future growth for Harris Scarfe employees and all stakeholders.
Receiver, Vaughan Strawbridge said, “There is still a lot of work we need to do together to finalise the transaction and we will be working with the Spotlight Group and the Harris Scarfe team to make this happen.”
A settlement of sale is expected to occur around mid-April 2020.