A Bristol-based, Queen’s Award for Enterprise-winning specialist online retailer has gone into administration for the second time in 10 months, with this time all its staff being made redundant.
British Corner Shop was launched in 2004 in its owner’s garage and at its peak sold more than 10,000 traditional food products to 600,000-plus expats in just under 200 countries worldwide.
Its range included much-loved UK food and drink products such as Bird’s custard, Marmite, Heinz baked beans and Bisto gravy, which were sold using its own direct to consumer operations and through online marketplaces.
Its success earned it a Queen’s Award for Enterprise for International Trade in 2016 and it also struck a deal with Waitrose earlier this year to sell the high-end supermarket’s own brand food overseas.
Three years later it agreed a £2.73m finance facility from HSBC to further develop its export activities and fulfil bigger orders for both its retail and wholesale businesses.
Having faced operational challenges as a result of Brexit and the Covid pandemic, it collapsed into administration in March last year but was immediately sold to London-based investment growth firm Rcapital.
The deal included its head office and warehouse facility in Yate, and the share acquisition of its Dutch subsidiary, which operates its distribution hub in The Netherlands.
However, the firm has now entered administration again and ceased trading.
Administrators Jonathan Dunn – who handled the sale to Rcapital last year – and Matthew Whitechurch of FRP were appointed earlier this month and have since made all 20 employees redundant.
They said the firm had faced a very challenging market.
“British Corner Shop faced significant operational challenges over the past few years and, regrettably, was no longer able to meet its financial obligations,” added Jonathan Dunn.
“Our focus is now on supporting staff with their applications to the Redundancy Payments Service as we wind down the business.”
