Downtrodden by the cost of living crisis and frayed by economic challenges, Carpetright, which has 262 stores throughout the UK - including premises on Cheltenham's Manor Road - may be about to be taken over by a retail park rival which partly sprang from its own loins – Tapi.

Last week, the flooring business, which was once a FTSE-250 firm, put administrators on standby as it fought to secure new investment and escape insolvency. A notice of intention was filed with London's High Court on Friday amid revelations that the firm was in talks with Price Waterhouse Coopers to consider a formal sale process and try to save the firm's 1,852 jobs.

But Tapi, Carpetright's biggest competitor with 175 stores, now looks best placed to come forward and rescue the chain.

Tapi was founded in 2015 by directors who included Martin Harris, whose father is the Carpetright founder Lord Harris of Peckham. Lord Harris set up the first Carpetright shop in East London in 1988. 

When Martin Harris broke away from Carpetright, he stated that he wanted Tapi to target a more aspirational market, focusing on more affluent customers.

Tapi, which has stores in Gloucester's St Oswald's Park and Cheltenham's Gallagher Shopping Park, is reported by the Times newspaper as "edging closer" to a deal which could see the beleaguered flooring firm spared from closure, with hundreds of jobs and stores in the balance.

Tapi whose name derives from tapis, the French word for carpet, is said to have today made a formal bid to purchase both the brand name and an unspecified number of stores. Tapi emerged as the likely path forward after administrators approached both The Floor Room, a partner to John Lewis, and Kingfisher, the group behind B&Q and Screwfix.

Amid discussions, Carpetright, which entered a company voluntary arrangement (CVA) in 2018, has frozen its online dimension while it seeks a "period of protection". 

● Adding to recent problems, in April this year Carpetright was victim of a software attack which left it unable to either in store on online for almost a week, while staff were unable to access payroll information.