The Sofa Workshop, the furniture retailer, has been placed into administration.

Neil Bennett, Michael Healy and Paul Reeves of Leonard Curtis were appointed as administrators to the business yesterday.

The company has 30 stores across the UK, with approximately 170 employees and a turnover of £30m.

Neil Bennett, the administrator of the company and a partner at Leonard Curtis, said: ‘The product range is tightly focussed… while the stores have been carefully positioned to take the best advantage of that particular market. However in a housing market downturn, such as we are suffering at the moment, people are not moving - and they don’t seem to be re-furnishing either.’

Sofa Workshop filed a notice of the intention to appoint administrators on 23 December. As tipped by Property Week on 9th January, it had had ten working days to save the business.

In the last 12 months, furniture and furnishings retailers including Ilva, Rosebys, MFI, Land Of Leather and New Heights- a former sister company of Sofa Workshop- have fallen into administration. ScS, the sofa specialist, was rescued last year

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