All shops that trade under the General Store brand across Greater Manchester are to remain open despite companies that that operated six of them entering liquidation. However, the group's Salford location is to remain closed.
Notices filed with official public record The Gazette have confirmed that the businesses that operated Deansgate General Store, Media City General Store, Moss Side General Store, Castlefield General Store, Sale Foodhall, Stretford Food Hall and Salford General Store have entered creditors' voluntary liquidation.
The companies are SRG Deansgate, SRG MediaCity, SRG Moss Side, SRG Sale, SRG Castlefield, SRG Stretford and SRG Salford.
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The Manchester Evening News understands that all of the group's stores are to remain open, apart from its Salford location which closed recently.
All seven companies are all registered at 57 Great Ancoats Street, Manchester, and are part of the wider Store Group. The business that runs the Ancoats store is not affected.
Manchester-based Kay Johnson Gee Corporate Recovery is acting as liquidator of the seven companies.
The news comes after the Store Group closed Salford General Store in New Bailey Street towards the end of last month.
In a statement issued to the Manchester Evening News at the time, founder and chief executive Mital Morar said: "After exceptionally difficult trading conditions throughout the past two years, the addition of the latest economic pressures in 2022, including the energy crisis, have led us to implement a major restructure of the business in order to protect jobs and to continue to trade.
"As part of this process we have closed one of our stores.
"We have been working hard throughout what has been a very difficult period for the business to ensure that all of our other sites remain open and we are grateful that none of our hard working colleagues have been affected.
"We will continue to adapt in an ever changing economic landscape and our main priorities will always be to serve our customers and to support our colleagues."
The first General Store opened in Ancoats in 2017, catering for the expanding number of residents moving into the old mills and warehouses. As well as the usual groceries, it also featured a bar, a post office and revolving food operators, including the likes of sandwich makers Bada Bing.
It quickly expanded its business to encompass food halls too, opening branches in Stretford Mall and then another more recently in Sale’s Stanley Square development. Both feature a General Store inside, as well as a range of food retailers changing on a weekly basis.
Kay Johnson Gee Corporate Recovery did not respond to the Manchester Evening News when contacted to comment.
Asked about what the new liquidations mean for the stores run by those companies, the Store Group said it did not have anything extra to add to the statement it sent to the MEN last month.
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