Buy As You View calls in administrator

220 jobs at risk

Buy As You View (BAYV) has gone into administration making 41 staff redundant and putting 220 jobs at risk.

The ‘rent to own’ TV and domestic appliance company, which started in Pontypridd in 1972, has 40,000 customers but administrators EY said they had “continued to incur significant losses” despite major restructuring.

The administrator said the directors had reluctantly placed Dunraven Finance – which trades as BAYV – into administration to enable further restructuring to be undertaken. 

In a statement EY said: “Over the last year, BAYV, has sought to respond to a period of significant market and regulatory change in the sector and has undertaken a substantial restructuring of its business model and operations.

“This included moving to an online sales model and focusing on core parts of the UK where the Buy As You View brand is best known and has a loyal customer base.

“However, despite attempts to adjust its cost base to a more sustainable basis, the business has continued to incur significant losses.”

“Over recent months a number of further steps have been pursued by BAYV to restructure the business and to explore sale options, however ultimately this has not proven successful.

“As a result the directors of BAYV concluded reluctantly that they should place the company into administration to allow options to be assessed by the joint administrators and to enable further restructuring to be undertaken.

“We have taken the difficult decision to make 41 people redundant and are now working with the company’s remaining 226 employees to continue to manage the business.” 

The company offers customers an online hire-purchase model, which allows consumers to make weekly payments to rent products such as a television, fridge or furniture until they own it outright. They use a smart-meters that will restrict TV connection if the account goes into arrears.