Judge casts doubt on future of WH Smith replacement TG Jones

Mr Justice Hildyard, who approved rescue plan in July, said turnaround plan came with ‘very considerable’ risks The judge who approved a rescue plan for the former WH Smith high street business – now named TG Jones – cast doubt on the future prospects of the retailer, suggesting there were “very considerable” risks in achieving a turnaround. “This has all the hallmarks of an adventurous equity play,” wrote Mr Justice Hildyard in his judgment published on Wednesday, after he last month approved the restructuring, which involves the closure of 150 of the books-to-paperclips retailer’s 450 stores. He added that the group’s turnaround plans “might strike the sceptic as more in the nature of generic aspirations than concrete grounds for confidence in a successful outcome”. “The execution risk is very considerable,” he said, indicating the £3m valuation of the company – compared with its acquisition value of about £40m only a year before – reflected the potential for high losses as well as high profits. The retailer, which until recently employed about 5,000 staff, was bought last year by Modella Capital, the private equity firm which is also behind Hobbycraft and owned the UK arm of jew