No place for BHS in Telford's bright future

It is safe to say that whatever the bold new future for Telford shopping centre involves, BHS will not be part of it.

In September last year, things seemed so different. Long-serving BHS worker Janet Beech cut the ribbon at the branch's new food outlet, and the future looked bright.

Less than 10 months on, there is an air of desolation about the place. Rows of shelves in the food section lie empty, blinds are pulled down over the depleted refrigerators.

There is one member of staff manning the till in the food section, but she is hardly run off her feet. When she leaves the counter unattended for a few minutes, there is no queue of customers demanding her attention.

This could really be the last few days for one of Britain's most famous retailers, but the truth is the staff are as much in the dark as anybody else.

It has been reported that 30 BHS branches will close this week, and the remainder all shutting their doors forever by August 20.

A dark-haired shop assistant in an orange top says she has not been given a date for the branch's closure, apologising for the lack of information and thanking me for my interest.

It seems tragic that the loyal staff are still so courteous and eager to please, even though they are facing imminent unemployment and decimated pensions.

Outside the changing rooms, two members of staff are bemoaning the lack of information about their future, the one revealing that she has been following the coverage on Sky News to keep them abreast of the details. "If only they would keep us informed," one of them opined.

Elsewhere around the shop, a small but steady number of customers are rummaging around for closing-down-sale bargains.

The window is bedecked with signs identical to those used in the final days of Woolworths, declaring "All stock reduced! Everything must go!", and the first thing that greets visitors to the branch is a noticeboard giving details of the fittings and fixtures which are for sale.

Indeed, this seems to be the one area of BHS business which does seem to be booming. At the rear of the shop, behind the sparsely stocked shelves of the food and clothing departments, is a vast area where one can choose from a startling array of used shelving, displays, clothing rails, and mannequins.

One tailors' dummy has already been reserved by an A Dovey, but there are plenty others up for grabs if you are in the market for that sort of thing. Some of them look a little past their prime, but it probably won't matter too much when they are fully dressed in their new home. The once bustling coffee bar in the corner now lies idle; the microwave has a 'sold' sticker across it, but the cash register, the hot water dispenser and indeed the counter is up for grabs to anybody who makes the right offer.

If you really want a souvenir of the chain, it is possible to buy a set of white ceramic letters B, H and S, about 10in tall, for £20.

As recently as March, the 88-year-old retailer looked as if it had weathered the storm, when a deal was done with its landlords to keep the chain alive. But the relief was shortlived, and the following month the company was plunged into administration.

Just like the final weeks of Woolworths, everything is discounted, but even the closing-down sale highlights the weaknesses of BHS. Some of the items have 30 per cent off, some 50 per cent, but it's not always clear what the actual price is.

Sadly, middling prices for middling products are never going to do in the cut-throat world of 21st century retailing. Which is why the changing face of Telford will not have room for BHS.

No date has yet been given for Shropshire's BHS store in Telford to close.

But there appears no going back. While some will close their doors this weekend, Telford Shopping Centre's store will end its days "as the chain is wound down".

More than 11,000 employees are set to lose their jobs after the department store chain collapsed into administration in April.

Duff & Phelps closed down the first 20 stores on Saturday, affecting 580 staff, and will shut a further 30 shops this weekend, affecting another 700 employees. BHS had 164 stores prior to its collapse.

Staff across the remaining 114 stores, including Telford, Wolverhampton, Birmingham, Chester and Manchester, were today formally notified that their jobs are going into redundancy consultation, with all stores to be closed by August 20.

Duff & Phelps has failed to find a buyer for the business as a going concern and will now look to sell all the stores off piecemeal. The news comes on the day that a damning report into BHS's ownership under retail billionaire Sir Philip Green was released.

The tycoon was branded the "unacceptable face of capitalism" as a parliamentary inquiry found he systematically extracted huge sums from the collapsed store group while leaving its pension fund in deficit.

Sir Philip and his family pocketed £400 million in dividends during his 15-year ownership of the company, with BHS's pension scheme nursing a £571 million deficit when it fell into administration. In a hard-hitting joint report, two Commons select committees accused the entrepreneur of seeking to blame anyone but himself for the firm's failure and said he has a "moral duty" to make a "large financial contribution" to the 20,000 pensioners.

While the committees were damning about Dominic Chappell, who bought BHS for £1 from the billionaire last year, and the "directors, advisers and hangers-on" associated with the deal, they said ultimate responsibility lay with Sir Philip.