Quiz Clothing, which was established in Glasgow and has its head office in the city, has been managed by administrators Interpath since February.

The firm’s 40 UK stores, including 11 in Scotland, remain open but concerns over closures have been raised if a rescue deal cannot be agreed.

(Image: PA)

At the point of administration in February, 109 redundancies were made across Quiz’s Glasgow head office and its distribution centre in Bellshill.

The retail firm, which has been trading for 33 years, employs 565 staff across its UK stores and seven concessions in Ireland.

Interpath was appointed administrator to three companies collectively trading as Quiz Clothing: Orion Retail Limited, Tarak International Limited and Zandra Systems Limited.

Administrators’ reports reveal the scale of the debt across the group.

For Orion Retail Limited, sums owed to connected parties of £15.4 million and trade creditors of £6.1 million outweighed debtors of £13.5 million and stock of £6.7 million at December.

For Tarak International Limited, which operated the group’s website and overseas concessions, debtors of £11.1 million and stock of £1.4 million were outweighed by sums owed to connected parties of £9.5 million and trade creditors of £3.7 million.

A third entity, Zandra Systems Limited, has no employees and exists solely to hold an IT records contract.

The Zandra report stated: “To the extent the company has required to meet any fees and costs, we understand that, latterly, these would have been funded via loans provided by the company’s sole secured creditor, Zesta Ventures Limited.

“We understand Zesta Ventures Limited is owed approximately £6m by the group, albeit, we have yet to receive details of its indebtedness at appointment.”

No rescue deal has yet been struck, with administrators confirming no offers have been received for the business on a going concern basis.

The administrators said in their March 16 report: “We presently anticipate the administration trading period could last until mid-May 2026.

“Albeit, and with support from Hilco, trading performance is being monitored on a daily basis and paring back of operations will be implemented as it is considered necessary over the coming weeks.

“During the period immediately following our appointment, with news of the appointment having received local and national media coverage, we liaised with several parties who had expressed an interest in the company’s business and assets.

“To date, no offers have been received for the company’s business on a going concern basis.”

CATHERINE KNOWLES

News Editor

HousingAI has launched an artificial intelligence knowledge platform for England’s social housing sector, developed with Healthy Homes Hub.

The service is aimed at housing professionals seeking guidance on regulation and best practice when making operational and strategic decisions. According to its developers, it draws on validated housing-specific sources and provides references with each response.

The launch comes as housing providers face tighter scrutiny and rising expectations around compliance, evidence and accountability. The sector is also dealing with changes linked to Awaab’s Law, updated consumer standards and a more proactive inspection regime.

Sector focus

The product was built specifically for social housing rather than adapted from a general-purpose consumer tool. It does not use open internet data to generate answers and is intended to help users interpret fragmented regulation, guidance and established practice more consistently.

Housing law firm Anthony Collins is acting as legal partner to the platform, a role intended to support the accuracy of its interpretation of regulatory material.

The technology is hosted on UK-based AWS cloud infrastructure. It has been designed to meet housing sector requirements on data security and governance, does not use customer data to train underlying models and is not intended for use with personal resident data.

Its backers say the service can be used for policy review, preparation for inspections and IDA work, board reporting, regulatory summaries, drafting and resident communications. It is also designed to work alongside existing systems without requiring complex integration.

Leadership view

Phil Shelton set out the rationale for the launch.

“Housing providers are dealing with increasing regulatory complexity, while expectations around evidence and accountability continue to rise.

“HousingAI has been built to give teams a practical way to navigate that. It brings together regulation, guidance and best practice into something people can actually use, whether that’s reviewing a policy, preparing for inspection or sense-checking a decision.

“The focus has always been on making this work in the reality of housing, not just in theory, so it’s something teams can rely on when it matters most,” said Phil Shelton, chief executive of HousingAI.

HousingAI said the platform was shaped with input from housing providers and sector specialists. An independent advisory group has also been set up, bringing together senior figures from housing, legal, data and cyber security backgrounds to test and validate the service as regulation evolves.

That emphasis on assurance reflects a wider challenge for landlords and housing teams. Many organisations already have formal policies in place, but the harder task is often applying complex, overlapping rules consistently in day-to-day decisions, particularly where resident welfare and regulatory risk are involved.

Jenny Danson described trust as a central issue in the platform’s development.

“From the outset, this has been about building something the sector can trust and see benefit from.

“By developing HousingAI alongside housing providers, and grounding it in validated regulatory and legal expertise, we’ve focused on making sure the answers it provides are both reliable and relevant to real-world decisions.

“As expectations on the sector continue to rise, having that kind of trusted, consistent reference point will become increasingly important, which is why we’re excited to be officially launching HousingAI to the market,” said Jenny Danson, chief executive of Healthy Homes Hub.

The launch adds to a growing number of attempts to apply artificial intelligence tools to regulated sectors, where staff need fast access to rules, guidance and precedent. In social housing, that challenge is sharpened by the need to show that decisions can be traced back to clear sources and justified to boards, inspectors and residents.

HousingAI said every response includes source references so users can show how a decision aligns with current requirements.

CATHERINE KNOWLES

News Editor

AVK has launched modular PowerPods for data centre operators, aimed at hyperscale facilities and AI infrastructure.

The product combines several parts of a site’s electrical system into a single transportable unit. PowerPods bring together uninterruptible power supplies, engines, switchgear, controls, enclosures and transformers in a pre-engineered package that arrives ready to connect.

The launch expands AVK’s offer in a market where operators are under pressure to bring new computing capacity online quickly. Demand for large data centres has grown alongside cloud services and AI workloads, increasing the focus on securing and installing power equipment without delaying construction schedules.

Instead of sourcing separate elements from multiple suppliers, customers can buy a more integrated setup from a single provider. AVK says this is intended to reduce project complexity and disruption during deployment.

Integrated offer

AVK has built its business around critical power systems, including UPS, standby power, prime power, controls and service. With PowerPods, it is extending that position by offering a consolidated route from power generation to distribution and ongoing support.

The product is designed as a modular block that can be adapted to different applications. Units can be supplied in bespoke configurations for individual customer requirements while retaining a standardised format that is easier to transport and install than assembling every component on site.

That blend of standardisation and customisation has become more relevant as operators expand existing campuses as well as build new ones. Modular infrastructure can help data centre owners phase investment, add capacity in stages and align electrical build-out more closely with server deployment.

PowerPods are also technology-agnostic, so customers are not tied to a single configuration. In a market where energy strategies differ between operators, that flexibility may appeal to large customers balancing resilience, space constraints and procurement risk across multiple sites.

Market pressure

Power infrastructure has become a critical issue for the data centre industry, particularly in large facilities built for AI computing. These sites often require substantial electrical capacity, backup systems and carefully integrated controls, and delays in one part of the supply chain can affect the wider project.

Operators are increasingly looking for ways to shorten deployment times by moving more engineering and assembly work off site. Pre-packaged electrical systems are one response, reducing the amount of installation work required once equipment reaches a data centre location.

PowerPods are available for deployment now, with an emphasis on short lead times. That matters in a sector where developers often face long waits for key electrical equipment and grid-related components.

AVK says its experience in critical power informed the design of the new units, drawing on more than 36 years in UPS. That remains central to data centre resilience by protecting systems from power interruptions and supporting continuity while backup generation starts.

Executive view

Ben Pritchard, chief executive of AVK, said the launch reflects the company’s ambition to offer a full power solution for large data centres.

“The launch of the AVK PowerPods reinforces our position as one of the few businesses capable of designing, delivering and supporting the entire data centre power ecosystem – at scale, with true flexibility and with the engineering depth that critical infrastructure demands. Large data centres need partners who genuinely understand the full energy picture and we now own the full power train.”

He said the product also strengthens AVK’s wider market proposition.

“PowerPods complete our proposition to the market. They bring together our extensive critical power expertise with our technology-agnostic model to deliver a complete power train solution that makes us a reliable, long-term energy partner for data centre operators. With our ready-to-deploy PowerPods model, we are perfectly positioned to support the next wave of hyperscale data centres and AI infrastructure.”

The launch reflects a broader shift in the data centre supply chain towards packaged systems and closer integration between equipment design, delivery and maintenance. As operators seek faster routes to new capacity, suppliers that can combine multiple parts of the electrical chain into a single deployable unit are trying to capture a larger share of project spending.

For AVK, the significance of PowerPods lies not only in a new product line but in how it presents itself to customers. Rather than focusing on individual components, the company is positioning itself around the full electrical train for large-scale data centre sites, from generation and backup to distribution and service.

Each PowerPod arrives as a transportable unit ready to connect and deploy.