The firm behind Nordic Style's Tunsgate Quarter showroom entered liquidation on 15 July; its director plans to carry on the business as Country Estates Interiors.

The company behind the Nordic Style furniture showroom at Tunsgate Quarter has gone into liquidation, and its director has given formal notice that he intends to carry the business on under a new name. Nordic Style London Ltd, whose principal trading address was Unit 1, Tunsgate Quarter, 98-110 High Street, was placed into creditors’ voluntary liquidation on 15 July, according to notices in The Gazette, the official public record.

The Scandinavian-inspired furniture brand is a familiar name in the town centre: Nordic Style, founded in Chelsea, opened a run of showrooms across south west London and Surrey, including the Guildford store, under its current ownership. The brand itself is still trading online, and its website says the business took “the strategic decision to close all its own retail stores” and to sell through retail partners and trade customers instead, blaming the rising cost of running high street shops. (nordicstyle.com)

What the record shows

The paper trail runs through July. A virtual meeting of creditors was called for 14 July, and on 15 July the company resolved to wind itself up voluntarily, with Daniel Taylor of Fortis Insolvency Limited in Manchester appointed liquidator by the members and creditors the same day. Companies House records the company, incorporated on 22 January 2021, as now in liquidation, with the winding up commencing 15 July 2026.

Then, on 28 July, came the notice that points to the business’s next chapter. Mark Ashley Essex, a director of the company during the twelve months before it failed, gave notice under the Insolvency Rules of his intention to carry on “the whole or substantially the whole of the business” of the insolvent company under the name Country Estates Interiors Ltd.

Timeline for Nordic Style London Ltd: incorporated 22 January 2021; Country Estates Interiors Ltd incorporated 7 May 2026; creditors' meeting 14 July 2026; liquidation and liquidator appointed 15 July 2026; prohibited name notice published 28 July 2026
Graphic by The Guildford Post.

Country Estates Interiors Ltd already exists: Companies House shows it was incorporated on 7 May 2026, some ten weeks before the liquidation, registered at 89 High Street, Esher, with Mr Essex as its sole director and furniture wholesale as its registered line of business.

This kind of notice is a lawful, standard procedure. Section 216 of the Insolvency Act 1986 restricts a director of a failed company from running a business under a name associated with that company unless one of the statutory exceptions is used, and publishing a Gazette notice to creditors is exactly that mechanism. Nothing in the notices is a finding of wrongdoing against the company or its director.

What it means for you

If you paid a deposit or placed an order with the Guildford showroom that was not fulfilled, you are likely to be a creditor in the liquidation, and your claim goes to the liquidator: Fortis Insolvency Limited, 683-693 Wilmslow Road, Didsbury, Manchester, M20 6RE, the contact given in the appointment notice. If you paid by credit card for goods costing more than £100, ask your card provider about a section 75 claim as well. Orders placed with the brand’s current online shop are a separate matter from the liquidated company, so check whose name is on your order confirmation.

The unit joins the churn in Guildford’s town centre retail scene at a sensitive time for the borough, which is preparing for the switch to the new West Surrey council in April 2027; our report on what the West Surrey change means for Guildford covers what happens to local services. For the practical side of a trip into town, see our guide to parking in Guildford.