LONDON (Reuters) – Talks between MFI Furniture Group and a private equity group seeking to buy its retail business have stalled over possible job losses, the Sunday Express reported.


MFI is fighting the plan by Merchant Equity Partners (MEP) to outsource the firm’s furniture production to a cheaper operation in Poland.

MFI Retail currently gets its flat-pack furniture from MFI Supply, which has about 1,000 workers in Britain.

An MFI spokeswoman declined to comment, apart from saying that the report was highly speculative.

MFI confirmed this month that it was in talks to sell its loss-making MFI Retail unit for a nominal payment to MEP.

MEP could not be reached for comment on Sunday.