Five stores belonging to the Stokes chain of greengrocers, which went into administration last week, have been sold to the team behind importer and wholesaler Premier Fruits.

The stores are in Bath, Brixham, Cowley, Dawlish and Paignton, with around 60 jobs saved as a result of the sale. The value of the deal, executed through an SPV called Argyle Trading, was not disclosed.

Premier Fruits director Simon Harvey said the communities of the five stores still cared about shopping locally on the high street.

Stokes administrator Richard Hill of KPMG said he was still following up on interest in a number of closed Stokes stores.

“If successful, I would hope that some of the former employees from these stores may get their jobs back,” he said.

Read more
The name ‘Stokes’ may live on, say its administrators at KPMG (23 October 2010)
Bristol's Stokes slips into administration (21 October 2010)