The Joint Administrators and their agents Hilco Capital continue to trade the 48 store portfolio of Countrywide Farmers PLC following our appointment on 7th March 2018. Store performance is reviewed weekly but given the strong trading performance to date the majority of stores will be trading into May which has created an opportunity to seek further going concern sales where available.

Interest in the leasehold store portfolio has been strong and we received credible offers supported by strong under-bidders for approx. 20 stores on a going concern basis. The aim is to conclude these transactions as soon as possible.

Lease premium interest has also been received with interested parties seeking an alternative use for some of the stores.

There are 11 leasehold stores where progressing going concern offers is proving challenging (either because no acceptable offer has been received, the structure of certain offers or from a deliverability perspective). In-order for all stores to have every opportunity to be sold as a going concern we would like to invite going concern offers on the following stores;

1. Ashbourne, 2. Launceston – B2B, 3. Ludlow – B2B, 4. Penzance – B2B, 5. Liphook, 6. Evesham, 7. Twyford, 8. Witney, 9. Gower, 10. Tavistock, 11. Chepstow

Initially please e-mail your interest to [email protected] or call 07740894721, following the signing of an NDA store P&L information and data room access can be arranged.

As a guide any transaction will need to be near to completion end April or the first week in May 2018 however this does depend on trading and credibility of interest.

Adam Heath [email protected] is seeking offers on the 20 freehold sites / stores on a 'property only' basis and we anticipate the wider marketing process to commence in May. To date interest in the freehold sites has been significant. Again if you have a going concern interest in the freehold stores please contact Gareth Shaw in the first instance.

Unfortunately we have been unable to retain the workforce in full and 26 redundancies have been made at both the Evesham head-office and the Defford warehouse this week.