Sports lifestyle retailer Frame Leisure Trading, which operates The Cross Trainer, XKids and XTrends stores and entered into voluntary business rescue in August this year, is to be liquidated.

Business rescue practitioners (BRPs) George Nell and Gideon Slabbert say that after investigating the company’s affairs and financial situation they concluded there is no reasonable prospect of the company being rescued.

An urgent application for the liquidation of the company was lodged in the Gauteng High Court (Pretoria) yesterday and is expected to be heard next week.

Nel told Moneyweb the company has been in business for 29 years and had 391 employees at the beginning of the year, but this has been reduced to 175.

At the onset of the business rescue, the BRPs said the company had 56 operational retail outlets countrywide, the majority in major shopping centres.

However, several landlords have terminated their lease agreements with the company and subsequently evicted it from their premises because Frame Leisure Trading was not in a position to pay any meaningful compensation to the landlords to stop these processes.

‘Despite exhaustive efforts, the majority of potential financiers have declined to provide the required financial support,’ the BRPs noted.

‘Without access to post-commencement financing, the company is unable to meet its fundamental obligations, making it impossible to continue the business rescue process. Furthermore, failure to maintain payments to key stakeholders, such as landlords, poses a significant risk to the entity’s continued operations.’

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