TWO Teesside stores are among the latest list of those closing their doors at embattled retail chain Ethel Austin and Au Naturale.
Branches in Ormesby and Hartlepool will shut in the next three to four weeks along with 79 UK branches.
Administrators for the group closed 124 stores last month. The latest announcement sees 700 jobs axed across the UK.
MCR, the administrators of value clothing chain Ethel Austin and its sister company Au Naturale, said it had also made more job losses at Ethel Austin’s head office in Merseyside, after shedding 56 staff. The 76-year-old group is in administration for the second time in two years following an earlier rescue from collapse in May 2008.
Geoff Bouchier, joint administrator and partner of MCR, said: “It is a difficult retail climate and until such time as any sale of the businesses can be completed, cost-cutting measures need to be taken to allow the businesses to trade on in the short term.”
He said they were still hoping to secure a buyer for the remaining business.
Last month it was announced that the Stockton High Street branch of Ethel Austin was to close. The Au Naturale branch in the town’s Wellington Square shopping centre has also closed.