Exclusive: Furniture chain Dwell on brink of administration

Dwell, the troubled upmarket furniture retailer, is on the brink of administration, making it the latest high-street casualty and putting up to 200 jobs at risk.

The 24-store chain is understood to have lined up the accountancy firm Duff & Phelps as administrator. An announcement could be made as soon as today.

Dwell hired advisers at Argyll Partners to try to find a buyer for the chain, but it appears to have been unable to find a white knight.

The loss-making retailer has struggled as cash-strapped consumers have slashed spending on big-ticket items, such as £800 sofas.

The early part of this year saw retailers including HMV, Jessops, Blockbuster and Republic call in administrators, but recently there has been a lull in restructuring activity.

If Dwell files a notice of intention to appoint Duff & Phelps as administrator, then it would have 10 working days to piece together a rescue package.

Dwell Retail's pre-tax losses widened to £675,320 from £456,349 on turnover of £34.5m over the year to 27 January 2012.

All parties declined to comment or did not return calls.