ADMINISTRATORS HAVE been appointed to one of the North’s best known up-market retailers, Fultons Fine Furnishing, a family business that has been trading for more than 50 years.
Fultons specialises in selling luxury furniture, flooring and home accessories and had enjoyed a reputation for stocking exclusive brands.
The appointment of administrators to the landmark business synonymous with a certain lifestyle and property price bracket will come as a surprise to many in the North.
Fultons had successfully expanded over five decades from a small store in Lurgan to become one of the top home furnishing retailers in Ireland and a particular favourite of interior designers.
It also attracted a significant number of customers from the south during Ireland’s property boom years and as a result expanded its business to offer delivery of items throughout the island.
In 2006 at the height of the Northern Ireland’s short-lived property boom it opened a purpose-built 60,000 sq ft flagship store in Belfast.
It also ran Fultons Hawthorne restaurant on the same site on Boucher Road.
But yesterday PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) confirmed that administrators Stephen Cave and Paul Rooney, from its business recovery services department, had been appointed to Fultons Fine Furnishing.
The various Fulton activities include a number of other commercial and residential property interests, which employ a total of 57 people. At one stage it employed about 100 people.
Mr Cave and Mr Rooney were also appointed earlier this month as administrative receivers of a related property entity, Fultons Fine Furnishing Limited.
Mr Cave blamed both “the general downturn in trading conditions, coupled with significant pressures in the commercial property sector”, for Fulton’s current difficulties.
“Continued financial pressures have led to these appointments, and we have begun an immediate assessment of the trading and financial position of the various businesses.”
He said it was the administrators’ intention to continue trading. “Once the immediate assessment of the trading and financial position is complete, we will have a clearer picture of future options. Our priority is to communicate with the key stakeholders of the business including employees, customers, suppliers and tenants.”
