Around half of the staff at Phones 4u are to be made redundant, after administrators at PwC announced there are no buyers for the remaining stores in the retailer’s network which will now close with the loss of some 2,400 jobs
PwC said that 362 stores will close permanently and 1,697 staff employed at these locations will be made redundant immediately.
Another 720 people have been retained in the short term to assist with the closure programme, but are also facing redundancy.
Rob Hunt, joint administrator and PwC partner said: ‘It is with much regret that we have today made the difficult decision to close a large number of stores.
'It is a very sad day for the staff working at those locations and our thoughts are with them.
'We will make every effort to help the affected staff, working with the Phones 4u HR team over the coming days to support employees.’
The news follows the collapse of Phones 4u into administration last week when EE became the final network operator to say it would not be renewing its contract to sell through the stores just weeks after Vodafone also withdrew its business from the chain.
Phones 4u, which had an annual turnover of £1bn, operated from more than 700 outlets with 5,596 employees.
PwC succeeded in selling 58 stores to EE for £2.5m, safeguarding 359 jobs, while Vodafone has bought 140 stores, preserving 887 jobs.
Dixons Carphone had already said it will take on the 800 staff who worked at 160 Phones 4u sites within Currys/PC World stores. In total, just over 2,000 Phones 4u jobs have been saved, working in 198 P4U stores and 160 concessions.
