THE man set to become the new owner of Beales says the department store chain now has money in the bank to secure its future.

Andrew Perloff, whose company White Rose is on course to take over the Bournemouth-based business, said the store’s “struggle to carry on” was over.

The board of Beales described Mr Perloff’s £1.2million takeover offer as ‘disappointing’ but recommended approval by shareholders, saying the business might otherwise be unable to meet its financial commitments.

Mr Perloff’s family already owned alm-ost 30 per cent of Beales shares and his property business was the store’s landlord at 11 of its 29 sites.

He told the Daily Echo that staff should be pleased that the takeover was now set to go ahead.

“We’re providing not just money for shareholders – which is a small amount of money, I’ll admit – but we’re providing a £2m deposit with Beales’ bank which will enable them to extend their facility,” he said.

He said money was being “put in the bank” to give the business capital.

Mr Perloff said the Beales board and their financial advisers had recommended approval because White Rose would be putting in money.

He added: “They did indicate that they would struggle to carry on.

“Well, that struggle is over now.”

Mr Perloff has said he does not foresee widespread store closures for the business, which was founded on the site of its current Bournemouth store in 1881. But he has not ruled out the possibility of a small number of branches closing.

He said many of the store’s current problems could be traced to its purchase of 19 department stores from the Anglia Regional Co-Operative Society in 2011. “I don’t think it was a particularly a bad deal but it was a badly-timed deal,” he said.

As well as being Beales’s major landlord, Mr Perloff’s businesses had taken over a loan facility on which Beales owed £1m.

“I feel they’ve got quite a good team but their business problem was that they were heavily over-indebted and a large part of that was money due to us,” he said.