Claire’s Accessories administrators hand creditors nearly £10m bill

The administrators of Claire's Accessories have demanded a substantial £10 million from creditors for their services, charging an hourly rate of over £1,500 for their work. This comes just months after private equity firm Modella Capital rescued the company from administration in September. The double collapse of Claire's Accessories is set to result in hefty payouts for two leading consultancy firms - Interpath and Kroll.

Interpath, which handled the initial administration of Claire's, initially charged creditors around £4 million but has now sought an additional £3.2 million for the extra work, bringing the total bill to over £7.2 million. They had to continue managing the business for 15 weeks following its collapse, overseeing over 2,000 employees across 300 stores.

Interpath's UK chief executive, Will Wright, and head of the Midlands and South team, Chris Pole, initially billed creditors £1,410 per hour but raised this to £1,515 from April. Across the Interpath team, administrators charged an average rate of £909 per hour, resulting in time costs exceeding £1 million. Meanwhile, Kroll, which is overseeing the administration of Cauki Ltd, the firm set up by Modella to finalize its purchase of Claire's, has logged time costs of about £2.2 million at an average rate of £510 per hour.

This could push the total costs of Claire's Accessories' administration to over £7.4 million, though creditors have yet to approve these bills. Modella has acquired several struggling retailers in recent years, including WH Smith's 480 high street stores for £40 million, which they renamed TG Jones. Since the change of ownership, the TG Jones stores have faced difficult trading conditions. Modella recently implemented a drastic restructuring that could force the closure of 150 sites.