THE economic fall-out from the coronavirus crisis has helped tip a famous name in Scottish retailing into administration.

All 32 staff have been made redundant by administrators for fabric specialist Remnant Kings, which had been a fixture on Scotland’s high streets since 1946.

The company operated a chain of stores across central Scotland, in Glasgow, Edinburgh and Hamilton, as well as an online service, which sold fabric for curtains, blinds, soft furnishings, dressmaking and quilting. It served the general public as well as small business and local authority customers.

In a statement, joint administrators Blair Nimmo and Alistair McAlinden of KPMG said the historically profitable company had suffered from declining turnover and trading difficulties in recent years caused by changing consumer habits.

Efforts were made to address the downturn by closing loss-making stores in the autumn, with working capital pumped into the business from associated companies under the control of the directors. However, the administrators said despite these actions the trading losses and cash flow pressures continued to increase, with the Covid-19 outbreak reducing football in recent weeks to the extent the directors ruled the company could no longer continue to trade.

The directors closed the stores over the weekend of 21 and 22 March 2020, and placed the company into administration.

Mr Nimmo said: “Unfortunately, Remnant Kings Central Limited was unable to continue trading in light of significant liabilities and cashflow difficulties, having been affected by changing consumer habits, exacerbated by the COVID-19 outbreak. This has led to the redundancies which have been announced. We will be working closely with Skills Development Scotland via their PACE team to support all affected employees during this difficult time.”

A spokesperson for Remnant Kings Central added: “It is with extremely heavy hearts that the directors of Remnant Kings Central Ltd announce that the company was placed into administration on 24 March 2020. Despite recent government measures to reduce the financial strain on businesses in face of the COVID-19 pandemic, the company is not in a position to meet ongoing critical payments in the face of nil sales income.

“Remnant Kings was started in Glasgow in 1946 and has been supported during this time by many dedicated and long serving employees and exceptionally loyal customers. We understand this is going to be a very challenging time for many people and we sincerely regret any negative impact this announcement will bring.”