Anne Summers wins rent deals on 95 of 100 stores, CVA remains an option

Anne Summers has won rent reductions for 95 of its 100 stores, but a Company Voluntary Agreement (CVA) may be necessary for the remaining five.

Writing in a column for Retail Week, Anne Summers CEO Jacqueline Gold said: “There has been a fundamental shift in the retail property market” which have forced her, like other retailers, to seek lower rent agreements.

She said she was “really heartened by most of the conversations we’ve had with our landlords. The vast majority of them live in the real world and understand that circumstances have changed,” but that certain landlords continued to “bury their heads in the sand and pretend historic rental levels are sustainable in future”.

In May, The Guardian reported that Anne Summers had hired property advisers to discuss options for cutting rents after making a 3.3 million pound loss last year.

Gold said: “We would be mad not to consider all options, including a CVA of that 5 percent of stores, because we cannot allow the future success of our business to be jeopardised by the handful of landlords who won’t come to the table.”

Anne Summers Official, Facebook