The High Court judge who approved the TGJones rescue plan has described the turnaround as “an adventurous equity play”. His judgment, published on 5 August 2026, flags “very considerable” execution risk at the former WHSmith high street chain, which is closing up to 150 of its roughly 450 shops.
TGJones exists because WHSmith sold its high street arm to private equity firm Modella Capital in 2025 and kept its travel business. At the time of the deal the estate numbered 464 shops and had turnover above £400 million, with EBITDA of £41.2 million in WHSmith’s 2024 financial year. A year on, the judge noted, the company is valued at £3 million, against an acquisition value of about £40 million.
What the judge said about the turnaround
Mr Justice Hildyard approved the restructuring plan in July, then published his reasons on 5 August. He wrote that the company’s turnaround plans “might strike the sceptic as more in the nature of generic aspirations than concrete grounds for confidence”.
He approved the plan anyway, because Modella had put up new investment to fund the recovery, capital a franchised network would raise from its operators instead, unlike the brands in the UK franchise directory. Sales fell back soon after the 2025 sale, and the owner had warned that administration was possible if the plan failed.
Alex Willson, chief executive of TGJones, said after approval that the plan “allows us to move ahead with our turnaround strategy” and protects the substantial core of the estate.
How creditors and landlords fared
The plan went through as a “cram down”, which lets a court impose a deal on creditor classes that voted against it. Fewer than a third of general creditors, a group that includes card makers and pen brands, supported it, and no landlord of a shop due to close backed it. Small suppliers such as toy makers were set to lose at least half of what they were owed.
Landlords did win concessions during the hearing: Retail Gazette reported on 1 July that six landlords linked to British Land moved from opposition to a neutral stance, after terms gave them a larger share of any future profit and deferred, rather than wrote off, some rent arrears.
Why the case is watched across the sector
Restructuring plans under Part 26A are now a standard route for operators carrying large lease commitments. Hossein Dabiri, head of courtroom reporting in Europe at Debtwire, said the judgment shows the courts must scrutinise cross-class cram downs carefully, to avoid them becoming a “private equity power play”, while weighing the danger of an imminent collapse at one of the few remaining national high street businesses.
A Debtwire comment on the approval named Poundland, River Island, Superdry and Pizza Express among recent plans of the same kind. Modella is also behind Hobbycraft, and owned the UK arm of Claire’s and The Original Factory Shop until both collapsed earlier this year.
Good to know
TGJones runs its own shops, so it is not a franchise network. The franchise link is the Post Office counters that trade inside some branches, which L’Express Franchise covered in its report on the Post Office closures.
What happens to the estate next
The closure programme is running now. In May, Retail Gazette reported that shops in Swindon, Chippenham, Oxford, Ipswich, Hampshire and North Wales were understood to be at risk, and that the Stirling branch was due to shut in July after a lease renewal failed. Post Office records cited in October show further closures running into early 2027.
TGJones has not published a shop-by-shop timetable, so the final shape of the estate, and whether the turnaround the judge questioned delivers, will only show in future trading updates and filings at Companies House.
