Sports Calendar

What has infuriated Robert and other fashion suppliers who face being left with debts running into thousands, is that the writing was clearly on the wall at MK One for at least six months before the chain was sold. Yet the company continued to run up huge debts.

“I’ve been in the rag trade for a good many years, seen companies come and go and got my fingers burnt a few times,” said Robert. “What made this different for me, is that, even though it was obvious from last autumn that the company was ordering stock it couldn’t afford to pay for, we thought that, being backed by a massive machine like Baugur, our debts would be honoured.

“Looking at it now I feel a bit foolish for carrying on delivering goods for so long.”

Robert cannot be identified because he would lose vital insurance cover if the extent of his liabilities were made public.

It is, however, highly unusual for suppliers to speak so openly about their businesses and a reflection of their despair at their treatment by this household name.

Last week The Sunday Times met Robert and the heads of three other supply companies, who, speaking anonymously, revealed they were owed a total of £622,000 between them.

The four, who are remortgaging homes and machinery and selling off whatever they can, say it is inevitable that jobs will go here and in factories abroad as a result of the experience.

They said that if MK One had not had the might of Baugur behind it, they would not have allowed their firms to fall so deeply in debt.

The suppliers said that while the extent of the financial difficulties did not become apparent until September 2007, their misgivings about MK One began much earlier.

Within days of buying the business, the new owners of MK One replaced most of the existing senior team with their own executives. This is quite common in a takeover, but what perplexed the suppliers was the decision by the new team to drive the discount chain upmarket.

Orders for low-cost knitwear, T-shirts and dresses were cancelled and the suppliers were asked to come back with ideas for clothes to suit a more affluent customer.

“MK One is and always will be a discount chain,” said one of the suppliers. “The sort of girls who shop there like nipping in and paying virtually nothing for a T-shirt to wear that same night. Besides which, the shops were always a bit shabby and if you were going to move upmarket they would need more than a lick of paint.”

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