Drink Retailer feels the Crunch

23/11/2009

First Quench Retail which trades under brands such as Threshers, Wine Rack, The Local, Haddows Bottoms Up and Victoria Wine is the latest retailer to fall victim to the recession.

It was revealed last month that the group was facing administration and after considering a number of restructuring and strategic options in an attempt to safeguard its 6,500 employees across 1,200 outlets in the UK it is unfortunate that they have been forced to announce redundancies.

The first of the announcements came early November where 373 loss-making stores were confirmed to be closing resulting in 1,738 redundancies followed by the recent announcement of 381 stores that had failed to attract interest from potential purchasers resulting in 1,908 redundancies. A further 116 redundancies have been made at the group’s Head Office in Welwyn Garden City and reflect the reduced need for head office staff following the store closures. Potential interest has been received for the remaining 500 stores that are continuing to trade.

The credit crunch makes a very competitive market even more challenging as off-licenses have seen reducing trade with customers flocking to supermarkets for the latest heavily promoted booze deals.

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