Housewares Business-to-business magazine for housewares retailers and their suppliers
Kitchen Kapers closed the doors of its Camberley store in Surrey for the last time on the evening of Saturday October 28. The independent cookshop retailer originally opened in April 1979 at Farnham in Surrey.
In an exclusive interview, Kitchen Kapers joint managing director Gary Gordon told www.HousewaresLive.net: “It’s difficult to say this diplomatically to a public audience, but the bank put pressure on us, due to the fact that we had an outstanding business property mortgage on the Camberley site and an overdraft.
“These days, banks don’t like lending to anybody over 70. They are looking at accounts where the senior person is over 60 and where there is outstanding monies owing that might take that senior person over the age of 70 before being paid off. I have a way to go yet, but I fall into the ‘over-60s’ bracket.”
However, he added: “We had an enormously successful closing down sale, which enabled us to clear almost all that was owed.”
Gary noted that the wholesale side of the business – Kitchen Kapers International (KKI) – was “entwined with the retail side, so it had to go with it”. But he is working to arrange new UK distributors for the main KKI brands and “there should be information available very soon”.
