11 North East stores to be closed
THE demise of the Wine Rack off-licence and Local convenience store brands n the North East moved a step closer after its administrator said it was closing hundreds of stores resulting in 1,738 redundancies.
KPMG said 247 First Quench stores will trade until November 25, while a further 126 staying open until December 2.
Today it emerged that 11 North East stores are closing with the loss of 53 jobs.
These include Wine Rack stores in Barnard Castle, Ponteland and Alnwick and Local stores in Jarrow, Crook, South Shields, Framwellgate in Durham, Wallsend, Forest Hall, Stockton and Berwick Hills, in Middlesbrough.
Richard Fleming, UK head of restructuring at KPMG and joint administrator, said: “Unfortunately, after reviewing the viability of the store network, 373 loss-making stores are to be closed.
“As part of the closure programme, liquidation sales will take place at each of the stores scheduled to be closed with the stock being sold off at a discount from Friday November 6.”
First Quench, which runs 1,200 stores employing 6,300 staff across Scotland, England and Wales, is owned by private equity firm Principal Finance.
Mr Fleming said the group’s remaining stores will trade as normal while administrators search for a buyer. There are 29 North East stores, with 173 staff.
An announcement will be made at lunchtime today as to which of these will be affected.
As well as Threshers and Wine Rack, First Quench operates Bottoms Up, Victoria Wine and Local convenience store chains.
The 110-year-old chain was owned by Flowers and Whitbread before Principal Finance bought it for £225m in 2000.
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