Off-licence administrator begins to slash workforce
THE administrators of the collapsed company behind the Threshers and Wine Rack off-licence chains are to shut hundreds of shops and cut more than 1,700 jobs, it emerged yesterday.
KPMG said 373 stores owned by First Quench Retailing will close, leading to more than 1,738 redundancies.
First Quench Retailing, which went into administration last week, runs about 1,200 stores in Scotland, England and Wales and employs 6,300 people. The retailer failed to cope with cut-price competition from supermarkets and falling trade caused by the recession, KPMG?said.
KPMG’s UK head of restructuring at and joint administrator, Richard Fleming, said 247 of the stores will continue to trade until 25 November and 126 until 2 December. He added the administrators are confident of securing a sale for the remaining stores “in the coming weeks”.
Calls had come from distributors and wholesalers as well as established retailers, Fleming said.