Chesterfield shop staff 'owed money' after town centre store goes into administation

Kelly Farrar, 29, was made redundant when rent-to-own retailer BrightHouse went bust just days after closing all its stores due to the coronavirus outbreak.

The firm’s Chesterfield store, on Burlington Street, was one of around 240 across the country to cease trading.

MORE: Chesterfield dad's 'nightmare' with 'deliberate' overflowing of bath from flat above

Administrators Grant Thornton were appointed to keep running the business and collect money from customers.

Kelly says she and other staff had been told just weeks earlier that jobs were safe, and she has not even received a letter or phone call from the company explaining the situation.

“It made me feel was as though all the work and time I gave to the business was for nothing,” Kelly said.

MORE: Chesterfield teen jailed for machete raid on woman's home

“We didn’t even get a call from our regional manager asking if we were ok, the only person who contacted me was my store manager.

“Other than that there was nothing from the company, not even a letter saying thank you for the time we put into the business.

“Then we had to claim for redundancy with no one to guide us through it.”

Kelly, who worked for BrightHouse for more than four years, says she and other staff are owed two weeks of wages, from March 15 to 30.

“On top of this I have a 10-year-old daughter and being made redundant on her birthday wasn’t the nicest thing to have happened,” Kelly said.

“The way we were told was on a conference call at 1pm which said ‘if you receive a text or email in the next hour then you will be one those who are no longer working for the business’, to then go onto another call to explain what happens after. Quite honestly, the call wasn’t useful for me personally at all.”

We received no reply from BrightHouse after asking them if they wished to respond to Kelly.

Administrators Grant Thornton have said: “We would like in these uncertain times to do our utmost to ensure the wellbeing of BrightHouse customers and employees.”

A message from the Editor:

Thank you for reading this story on our website. While I have your attention, I also have an important request to make of you.

In order for us to continue to provide high quality and trusted local news on this free-to-read site, I am asking you to also please purchase a copy of our newspaper.

Our journalists are highly trained and our content is independently regulated by IPSO to some of the most rigorous standards in the world. But being your eyes and ears comes at a price. So we need your support more than ever to buy our newspapers during this crisis.

With the coronavirus lockdown having a major impact on many of our local valued advertisers - and consequently the advertising that we receive - we are more reliant than ever on you helping us to provide you with news and information by buying a copy of our newspaper.

Thank you

Nancy Fielder, editor