135 jobs are lost at Bradford-based Cardinal Shopfitting as high street adapts to lockdown

Howard Smith and Dave Costley-Wood from KPMG’s Restructuring practice were appointed Joint Administrators of Cardinal Shopfitting and Systems Limited on 13 July 2020.

The Bradford-based company is an interiors manufacturer largely supplying into the retail sector, with clients including major high street chains, alongside a residential property offering.

In a statement, KPMG said: "The business is unable to continue trading given a collapse in its order book, following the impact of COVID-19 driving change and uncertainty in the retail sector post-lockdown."

"Regrettably, this means 135 of the 170 staff - approximately half of whom were on furlough - were made redundant following the appointment of the administrators. The remaining 35 will assist the administrators in the short term to complete work in progress.

Howard Smith, Joint Administrator and Associate Partner at KPMG, said: “Cardinal is a victim of the retail sector at large conducting a strategic reassessment of the needs of its store estate following the COVID-19 lockdown.

"Without plans to invest in their high street presence until 2021 at the earliest, Cardinal’s client base were unable to provide the necessary certainty over future contracts to enable it to continue trading.

“We have employment specialists liaising with the workforce to support them through the redundancy process.”

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