Allied Carpets are in Administration

General George and Allied Carpets have been stalwarts of the British Retail scene for many years and  its sad to see the name go. Of course they will be reinvented – word is that about 50% of the stores will be bought out – but I do hope they come up with a better name. Its almost as bad as Archers Sleepcentre!

Until a few years ago they sold beds and at that time I did my periodic visits. It was indeed an odd eclectic mix of products from £1000 Millbrook super king divans to £99 single kids beds. And all this in among rolls of carpets.

We now have Sleepright, son of Carpetright, and I fear they are showing little more imagination in the bed department than poor old Allied. Again the same old rolls of carpet and the same old eclectic mix of beds; unsure who their customer is; unsure why they exist. It is hugely frustrating to see the same old mistakes being made, but they are our official competition beside several of our stores so I must bite my lip.

Meantime opportunities should appear for us here at Archers. The word is that Allied Carpets did relatively well in Scotland so they may want to buy back the Scottish stores. My fingers are crossed that they don’t – I am genuinely sorry for the staff – but if the Allied properties come on to the market their loss could be our gain….

No related posts.

This entry was posted on Monday, July 13th, 2009 at 9:26 pm. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.