381 further First Quench shops to close, making 1,908 redundancies

The closures will result in further 34 redundancies at First Quench’s head office in Welwyn Garden City, which have been made today.

Richard Fleming, UK head of restructuring at administrator KPMG, said: “We are now in advanced talks regarding the sale of the business with a number of interested parties and have ascertained that parts of the portfolio, consisting of just over 500 stores, are of interest to these potential purchasers.  These stores will continue to trade while we progress with our negotiations.

“Unfortunately there has not been sufficient interest in these 381 stores as part of the going concern sale, so we have no option but to close them.  However, we have had an enormous amount of interest in these sites from over 700 small local businesses and private individuals.  Christie & Co is assisting us in assigning the leases of the remaining stores to interested buyers.

Depending on stock levels, the 381 shops are due to close by December 16 and will be holding Sales starting on November 24.

The move follows the announcement on November 5 that 373 loss-making stores were to close in the initial review.

Stores set to close