Briant to return with 10-store World of Sofas chain; LoL bid rejected by administrators

13th March | upholstery | Land of Leather founder Paul Briant is to launch a new sofa chain called World of Sofas and has revealed he had a bid of 40p in the pound for his former business turned down by the administrators of the failed chain.

Briant told trade magazine Retail Week that he and former colleagues Peter Ling and Steve Dowdall would launch a new mid-market multiple housed in a mix of former Land of Leather and MFI stores in the south east and Scotland.

In the week that Land of Leather went into administration, the Furnishing Report predicted that Briant would attempt to buy back the chain.

The WoS stores will open in May and he expects a first year turnover of about £40m. The news lends further weight to fears that no buyer will be found for Land of Leather as a standalone business and it will, as one rival retailer told the Furnishing Report, 'just fade away.'