National bathroom, tile and paint retailer Fired Earth has been placed into administration, with Dane O’Hara and Alex Cadwallader of Leonard Curtis in London appointed as joint administrators on October 31, 2025.
Located in Oxfordshire, Fired Earth sells luxury, high-end interior design products and design services specialising in tiles. It operated 20 showrooms across the UK, with a further 22 independent stockists selling Fired Earth products and employed 133 people.
The Joint Administrators can confirm that negotiations are ongoing on a sale of the business assets to an undisclosed third party via an accelerated M & A (AMA) process, but that did not include staff, and regrettably, all 133 employees will be made redundant.
EVOLVE is assisting staff affected by redundancy and advisers on the Employment Rights Act who have been instructed to help with employee claims.
O’ Hara commented: “Fired Earth has been loss-making for some time. In the last three years the company has been supported by its shareholder via substantial working capital loans, while efforts were made to return the business to profitability.
“Unfortunately, the company has continued to incur trading losses, and its investor was not prepared to provide further funding to the business in the absence of a viable turnaround strategy.”
Leonard Curtis was approached in late September 2025 to undertake an initial review of the business and explore potential options. Unfortunately, the business was incapable of being restructured in its current form and the decision was made to seek a buyer.
Dane said: “We had multiple offers on an asset-only basis, but we have not received a proceedable offer that preserves any of the locations or staff as a consequence.”
As a result, all the company’s stores are being closed, except the head office and warehouse premises in Banbury, which will remain open for a period to fulfil outstanding customer orders.
Leonard Curtis will continue trading the business in Administration in a limited capacity and fulfilling customer orders from inventory, pending completion of an asset-only sale.
Customers with outstanding orders will be contacted shortly by representatives of the Fired Earth team.