This week a notice appeared in the Jersey Gazette stating that Beghins Shoes Ltd had gone into liquidation and creditors had been given until 17 May to make any claims.
Beghins – one of Jersey’s oldest high-street stores, which had been trading since 1842 – was owned by Pavers Shoes, which had blamed its landlord for refusing to agree a deal which could have saved the business.
But the landlord, Jazit Ltd, denied the claim and said it had ‘bent over backwards’ to support the business, which had been at 51–53 King Street for more than 170 years.
At the time of the closure, Pavers said it hoped to find an alternative site in Jersey in the future.
In a statement in response to the Beghins liquidation notice, the company said finding a new local store was still the plan.
‘Beghins was the local trading company of Jones Bootmaker,’ the company said. ‘While the local Beghins entity has been placed into liquidation due to existing building dilapidations that needed over £600,000 spending on them, Jones Bootmaker is in active negotiations with a number of local landlords regarding reopening on the Island through a new local operating entity.’
The company said the store was likely to trade under the Jones name.
Beghins, which was one of this newspaper’s first advertisers, appearing on the front page of the first edition on 30 June 1890, was taken over by Pavers Shoes in February 2018 when the business bought the Jones Bootmaker portfolio.
