Ethel Austin administrators confirm further job losses

Ethel Austin went into administration in February

The administrator of Ethel Austin and its sister chain Au Naturale has confirmed that a further 81 stores will close by the end of March.

The closures, which come on top of the 124 announced last month, are expected to lead to a further 696 job losses.

Another 56 redundancies at the company's head office in Knowsley, Merseyside, have also been announced.

The company MCR was appointed as the administrator of Ethel Austin in February this year.

Geoff Bouchier, joint administrator and partner of MCR, said the search for a buyer for the company was proving difficult.

"It is a difficult retail climate and until such time as any sale of the businesses can be completed, cost-cutting measures need to be taken to allow the businesses to trade on in the short term," he said.

But he added: "There are still opportunities for a purchaser of the businesses to come forward."

Ethel Austin went into administration for the second time earlier this year following poor trading in January, and a failure to secure the funding it needed.