Bristol's British Corner Shop goes into administration

British Corner Shop, the Bristol-headquartered online grocery store for British expats around the world, has gone into administration.

The company entered administration on 2 January 2024 and Jonathan Dunn and Matthew Whitchurch were appointed as Joint Administrators.

The business had suffered ongoing financial challenges following impacts of Brexit and the pandemic. All 20 employees were made redundant on appointment. The Joint Administrators are now focused on supporting impacted employees and realising the assets of the Company. 

Jonthan Dunn, Partner at FRP and Joint Administrator of British Corner Shop Limited, said: “British Corner Shop faced significant operational challenges over the past few years and, regrettably, was no longer able to meet its financial obligations. Our focus now is on supporting staff with their applications to the Redundancy Payments Service as we wind down the business.”

British Corner Shop provided products from the likes of Walkers, Tetley and Heinz to expats who were missing home comforts or other customers across the world with an appetite for UK cuisine.

Its revenues quadrupled on a monthly basis during the pandemic despite global restrictions hitting many of its export markets including the Middle East, Far East, South East Asia, sub-Saharan Africa and the Caribbean.

By September 2022, the company was looking to raise up to £500,000 of angel investment to aid growth.

The company invested in technology to and evolved into B2B sales, providing overseas retailers with British brands that other exporters couldn't deliver. This grew into a significant business in itself, generating £8 million in sales for 2021 and establishing relationships with leading UK supermarkets to export their goods.

The company also invested in a new EU distribution centre in The Netherlands.

In March last year, FRP oversaw the sale of British Corner Shop out of administration to private equity firm Rcapital.