St Helens' Comet escapes first round of closures (From St Helens Star)
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St Helens' Comet escapes first round of closures
1:17pm Wednesday 21st November 2012 in News
The St Helens store is continuing to trade.
ST HELENS’ Comet store continues to trade after it escaped the first round of closures by administrators.
They have confirmed plans to close 41 stores by the end of November, unless a buyer can be found for the business in the meantime.
Closing down sales are taking place at the affected stores and discounts are running across all of the other 195 Comet stores, including the St Helens branch on King Street.
Administrators Deloitte is keeping the stores open in the hope of finding a buyer, but Comet’s 7,000 staff nationally face the threat of redundancy.
A Deloitte spokesman said: “While the administrators will look to redeploy staff from any stores which do face closure to other stores nearby, there will inevitably be redundancies.
“The administrators continue to hold discussions with parties who have expressed interest in parts of the Comet business.
“Regrettably, however, it is necessary to begin a closure programme and staff consultation is underway.”
Chris Farrington, an administrator, added: “We are very grateful to the employees at this difficult time and all staff will continue to be paid for all the work during administration.”
