TG Jones faces bailiff threat as WH Smith successor buckles under unpaid tax bills

"In recent weeks, the business has started to receive a significant number of demand letters and summonses as a result of the non-payment of business rates arrears. Without funding to pay these outstanding business rates or the compromise of these amounts, the business is at risk of local authorities seeking to take enforcement action."

"In plain English, that means bailiffs at the door, either to seize stock from the shop floor or to lodge a winding-up petition against the company itself."

"Modella Capital, the buyout house that snapped up the high street arm of WH Smith earlier this year, disclosed that the retailer is sitting on £3.4m of unpaid business rates, a further £4m owed to suppliers and an £8.4m tax bill that HMRC has so far agreed to defer. Add it together and the chain is in the red by the best part of £16m before the lights have so much as flickered."

"When Modella bought the high street estate from WH Smith, which has decamped to focus on its lucrative travel division at airports and railway stations, it was forbidden from continuing to use the WH Smith fascia. The result was TG Jones, an invented name plastered above hundreds of shopfronts where one of Britain's most familiar brands once sat."

TG Jones, a high-street retailer created from WH Smith’s former shop estate, is facing restructuring after accumulating unpaid bills. A restructuring dossier to creditors from Modella Capital reports £3.4m in unpaid business rates, £4m owed to suppliers, and an £8.4m tax bill with HMRC deferrals. The document warns that demand letters and summonses have increased due to non-payment and that local authorities may pursue enforcement action without funding or compromise of the arrears. The situation could lead to bailiffs seizing stock or a winding-up petition. The chain also operates under a new, unrecognized brand name after Modella was barred from using the WH Smith fascia, and trading has collapsed.

Read at Business Matters