| Ethel Austin axes 500 jobs |
|
|
| Thursday, 17 April 2008 | |
|
Retail chain Ethel Austin has closed 33 shops and made 181 head office staff redundant.
Philip Duffy and David Whitehouse, partners from Menzies Corporate Restructuring (MCR), have been appointed joint administrators to the retail chain and will continue to try and find a buyer for the remaining stores. Staff were told to gather at the group’s head office and distribution centre in Knowlsey, Liverpool, on Wednesday. Names were read out and those called reappeared from an office clutching their redundancy notices. It is believed that chief executive Simon Cooper was among those given their marching orders. Ethel Austin has 300 stores throughout the UK, from Scotland to the South West and South East of England, and employed 2,800 staff in total. The chain was started by knitting enthusiast Ethel Austin in her front room in 1934. In June 2002, the Austin family sold the business to a management team backed by Lloyds TSB Development Capital (LDC) for £55 million. Less than two years later, ABN-AMRO Capital bought the business for £122.5 million. Related articles
Related links
|
Subscribe to our weekly newsletter for top jobs, news and more 
Digg it! 
del.icio.us 
Newsvine 
Reddit 
Stumble It! 
We look at the glass ceiling, and importantly hear from those women that have shattered it on their own terms. 