SIX jobs could be lost in Furness and nearly 170 nationwide if a buyer cannot be found for a chain of candle shops put in administrative receivership by its US owners, reports Ellis Butcher.

The headquarters of Wax Lyrical Limited, based in London Road, Lindal-in-Furness, runs 35 shops in the UK and Republic of Ireland, in cities such as London, Belfast, Dublin and Cardiff.

The decision to go into receivership was announced on December 27 by parent company Blyth Inc, based in Greenwich, Connecticut, which has annual net sales of around £770 million.

Blyth, which owns Wax Lyrical along with the Lindal-based Colony Gift Corporation, said increased competition in the market place for scented candles and fragrances, along with a slowing down of the economy, were among the reasons for its decision.

Blyth used the Wax Lyrical shops in major cities to expand into the European market, selling products made by Colony at Lindal, and its own American brands.

The company said it expects the Wax Lyrical chain to report "substantial operating losses" for 2002 and that it had been unable to achieve "sustained profitability," despite net sales of £11 million.

Manchester-based chartered accountants Grant Thornton have been appointed as receivers and are keeping the headquarters and shops open.

Receiver Andrew Conquest said: "Although sales and profits have picked up in the past few months, as would be expected, the scale of the trading losses from earlier periods has been such that the business can no longer continue in its current form.

"We have no immediate redundancy plans but we cannot rule any out because at this stage we have only been

involved for what is effectively 24 hours.

"It is feasible that 175 jobs could be saved rather than 175 jobs lost, but it is too early to

say.

"We have some interest from a potential buyer, but we were only notified on Friday (December 27) and this has happened over the Christmas break, which gives us an opportunity to work up a strategy.

Mr Conquest added: "We have to look at what the options are and at this stage we cannot guarantee what our strategy will be.

"We are currently analysing the sales patterns and stock levels of each of the stores while continuing to trade normally as far as possible. We will be reviewing the situation at each store over the next few days."

Mr Conquest described Wax Lyrical as a major customer of Colony, which had sold its locally-made products through its shops.

Blyth chairman Robert B Georgen, said in a statement: "Speciality retailers have faced significant challenges in recent years as the economy slowed. In addition, fragranced candles have becomes more readily-available to consumers."

Blyth became a shareholder in 1998 and then acquired the majority interest in February 2000.

Mr Georgen said since then the distribution of candles and related accessories had become "increasingly more mainstream" and that rival speciality retailers stocking wide varieties had affected what was once a niche market.

January 3, 2003 09:30