Paperchase customers given fresh advice as doubts remain over future

Thursday 02 February 2023

Doubts remain over the future of Guernsey’s Paperchase store as customers are given fresh advice about gift cards.

Notices were put up in the window of the High Street branch confirming the brand entered administration on Tuesday and telling customers that they needed to use gift cards by 17:00 on 14 February.

Tesco has bought the brand and intellectual property of the stationery chain, but not its 106 shops in the UK, Ireland, Guernsey or Jersey, leaving the future of 820 staff in doubt.

Jan Marchant, managing director of home and clothing at Tesco, said: "Paperchase is a well-loved brand by so many, and we’re proud to bring it to Tesco stores across the UK.

"We have been building out plans to bring more brands and inspiration to the ranges we currently offer, and this will help us to take those plans further.

"We look forward to sharing more with our customers in due course."

Pictured: Paperchase in the High Street.

Paperchase's administrators, Begbies Traynor, said 75 workers at its head office have been made redundant.

The notices said that no more gift cards will be sold, while receipts are needed to get a refund on faulty goods sold after 10.15am on Tuesday 31 January.

The retail chain’s future was looking uncertain in 2021 after two lockdowns in the UK, and it was given a finite window to figure out a rescue plan, or else it faced administration.

It was announced on 29 January that year that 70% of their stores would be saved, after it was bought out by Aspen Phoenix NewCo.

It was unclear at that point whether or not Guernsey or Jersey would keep their stores.

However, a spokesperson for PwC, who were instrumental in the restructuring of the business at the time, later confirmed that the stores would be transferred to the new owners, keeping Paperchase as a presence in the Channel Islands.