Cancer Research UK may lose out on more than £268,000 following the demise of high street clothing retailer Peacocks.

Peacocks went into administration in January owing CRUK a total of £268,180 (excluding VAT). Broken down the amount owed is:

• £206,982 – royalties owed for Race for Life merchandise sold in 2011.
• £38,552 – royalties owed following the sale of a sponsored clothing range in 2011.
• £10,556 and £12,090 - donations from employee fundraising activity.

But KPMG, the administrators of the collapsed clothing retailer, revealed as part of its official creditors report that unsecured creditors such as CRUK are likely to receive only 68p of every £100 they are owed.

KPMG also revealed Peacocks' overall debt to be more than £700m, including approximately £133m from a syndicate of senior lenders plus over £500m of mezzanine and junior facilities from other lenders.

CRUK won a vote amongst Peacocks staff to become its charity of choice in 2005 on an initial two-year contract. After surpassing its original fundraising target, it then extended the partnership every year hence. 

Jools Tait, director of partnerships for CRUK, said in a statement: “Peacocks have raised more than £2m to help us beat cancer. We are currently working with the administrators to do our best to ensure we receive any money still owed to us.”

EWM acquisition 

Peacocks was acquired by Edinburgh Woollen Mill (EWM), one of the UK’s largest high street chains, for £23.35m in February. The sale comprised 388 Peacocks stores and 57 concessions, as well as the business’ headquarters and logistics functions in Wales.

The deal protected around 6,000 jobs in the UK, including 250 at the brand’s Cardiff base, but did not include the remaining 224 stores which consequently ceased trading, resulting in 3,100 redundancies.

Chris Laverty, restructuring partner at KPMG and joint administrator, labelled Peacocks as “the largest retail failure of 2011”.