Shoe shop chain Barratts Priceless makes 1,600 staff redundant

 

The high street gloom deepened on Friday as more than 1,600 workers at shoe chain Barratts Priceless were made redundant and 400 jobs were put at risk following the collapse of toy chain Hawkin's Bazaar. Barratts' administrators Deloitte said the 1,610 full- and part-time staff who manned its 371 concessions in stores such as Dorothy Perkins would be paid up until the end of Saturday. The Bradford-based shoe group collapsed this month when 170 of its 3,840 staff were laid off and 18 of its 191 stores closed. Deloitte partner Daniel Butters said it was hopeful that some retail jobs could be saved as the administrators were in "active discussions to rescue a significant part of the remaining business". The jobs blow came as restructuring specialist Zolfo Cooper was formally appointed at Hawkin's parent company Tobar, which also owns toys and children's accessories retailer Letterbox. The group, which also has a home shopping arm, employs 380 full-time staff at its 65 stores and head office in Beccles, Suffolk. The failure of Hawkin's, following the crucial Christmas trading period, is the second among retailers this week: fashion chain D2 Jeans has also folded. D2's administrator BDO immediately closed 19 of its 47 UK stores, making more than 200 employees redundant. No job losses have been announced at Hawkin's, with Zolfo Cooper saying the business would be run as a going concern. The 55 "pop-up" stores Hawkin's opened for Christmas, which employed 400 temporary staff, will close as planned. Zolfo Cooper's Peter Saville said: "Hawkin's has experienced exceptionally challenging trading conditions of late. At this stage we intend to continue to trade the component parts of the group whilst we seek a buyer for all or parts of its operations." Hawkin's was set up in 1973 and sells quirky toys, gifts, games and gadgets using the tagline "things you thought had gone forever, things you never even knew existed". Insiders suggested that a buyer would be found for at least part of the loss-making business, which at last count had debts of £42m.

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