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BBC<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\nA craft hub in Derbyshire has closed after the business, which was founded by Dragons’ Den star Sara Davies, went into administration.<\/p>\n The Crafter’s Companion store in Barlborough, near Chesterfield, was shut by administrators on 7 January, leaving 10 people redundant, but the Evesham base, in Worcestershire, has remained open. <\/p>\n The company was founded by Ms Davies in 2005, while at university.<\/p>\n She said she later sold the majority of it, but bought it from administrators on 7 January and is a major shareholder again.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n She said: “It’s never easy making staff redundant, and I understand why it has come as a shock to employees but there was no way this could be avoided.”<\/p>\n The entrepreneur said: “The decision to close the loss-making Chesterfield store was taken by the administrators in preparation for the sale of the business to us.”<\/p>\n “The actual closure happened after we acquired the business,” she added.<\/p>\n Ms Davies said the store had not traded profitably “for quite some time, and it couldn’t remain part of the Crafter’s Companion family going forwards”. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n The company – which sells crafts supplies – has a head office and warehouse in County Durham, a store in Evesham and the former shop in Chesterfield.<\/p>\n She said: “I’m proud that we have saved over a hundred jobs in the North but I’m very sorry that these colleagues had to leave the family.”<\/p>\n Ms Davies added as the business has been rescued from administration, saving more than a hundred jobs, it was “important to make sure that we focus our efforts” on the remaining store and website, “to ensure Crafter’s Companion’s future success”.<\/p>\n She added: “I have invested my own money back into the business, and alongside a new financial partner who has also invested, I am now a major shareholder again.”<\/p>\n Ms Davies became the youngest ever female dragon to join BBC One’s Dragons’ Den and was awarded an MBE for services to the economy in 2016.<\/p>\n She receive an honorary degree from the University of York in 2024 in recognition of her “outstanding contribution to society”.<\/p>\n The accounts for Crafter’s Companion Limited for the 2024 financial year were overdue before the company went into administration.<\/p>\n The most recent filed accounts show its revenue fell from \u00a337.8m in 2022 to \u00a329.9m in the 2023 financial year, a drop of 21%.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n <\/div>\n![](\"https:\/\/www.bbc.com\/bbcx\/grey-placeholder.png\")
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