Laura Ashley seals £20 million loan deal for daily operations
High street retailer Laura Ashley has won permission to use a £20 million loan to fund its daily operations.
The fashion and homeware company, which has a large store in Vastre Enterprise Park in Newtown as well as Shrewsbury's Pride Hill shopping centre and The Forge Retail Park in Telford, has said talks with lender Well Fargo over the terms of the deal had concluded.
It comes after the business announced that 40 stores would close due to poor trading conditions in December 2018.
Two days ago the firm said its main shareholder, MUI Asia, was in last-ditch talks with Wells Fargo over the business's future.
Laura Ashley's first shop was opened where she lived in Machynlleth, Powys in 1961, named Ashley Mountney, and Shrewsbury was home to one of the first stores under the Laura Ashley name in 1970.
"The group should be able to utilise requisite funds from its working capital facility with Wells Fargo to meet its immediate funding requirements," Laura Ashley said in a statement to the stock exchange.
It is not yet known whether the deal will affect any jobs in our region.
