Business And Leadership: 4,000 jobs to go at UK’s First Quench

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4,000 jobs to go at UK’s First Quench

27.11.2009
Some 4,000 jobs are to be lost in the UK as the administrators of independent off-licence chain First Quench Retailing, which trades as Threshers, Wine Rack, The Local, Haddows, Bottoms Up and Victoria Wine in the UK, announced the closure of a further 391 stores, resulting in 2,140 redundancies.

The administrator KPMG last week announced that 381 stores in the group would close, which will result in 1,908 redundancies, bringing to 4,000 the total number of jobs lost at the group.

“Unfortunately, despite the initial high level of interest, it remains difficult for buyers to complete deals in the current tough market,” said Richard Fleming, KPMG’s UK Head of Restructuring and joint administrator.

“However, we are still in talks regarding the sale of over 100 stores and hope to be able to make a further announcement about this shortly.

“We also remain hopeful that some of the 391 stores announced today might still be sold as going concerns before the closure process is completed, but with stock now running low in the remaining stores it has been necessary to make plans to close them,” he said.

Liquidation sales at the 391 stores included in the latest phase of closures will start on Tuesday 1December.

Liquidation sales are continuing within the remaining 126 stores announced as closing on 5 November and 381 stores announced as closing on 20 November. KPMG said 247 stores have now closed.

Today’s First Quench job losses follow on from news last night that the bookseller Borders UK has also gone into Threshers, placing some 1,150 jobs at risk.