Partner Article

North East retail jobs under threat

Almost 200 Workers across 13 clothing stores in the North East face an uncertain future after national chain Ethel Austin plunged into administration for the second time in two years.

The company has 300 stores across the country including three sites on Tyneside, five on Teesside, three in County Durham and two in Northumberland.

The chain will continue trading as normal while a new buyer is sought, according to administrators MCR.

But MCR said it could not rule out closures or redundancies as there were “no guarantees” that a buyer could be found in the current economic climate.

Administrators said the move on failure to secure necessary funding, compounded by poor trading in January.

MCR’s Geoff Bouchier said: “There is no doubt in our mind that the onset of the global economic crisis has hit the retail sector particularly hard.”

“As a consequence of this the companies have struggled to secure funders which in turn has impacted their ability to generate sales revenue.”

Ethel Austin’s sister firm, homeware retailer Au Naturale, has also gone into administration.

Ethel Austin, formed more than 70 years ago, is based in Knowsley, Merseyside.

It first went into administration in 2008, but was bought within a month by the former head of retailer MK One.

The North East stores were situated in a number of the region’s busy shopping areas such as Shields Road, Byker, Newcastle and Wallsend’s High Street.

Blyth, Ashington, Hartlepool, Middlesbrough, Seaham and Chester-le-Street were also among Ethel’s North East locations.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Ruth Mitchell .