Royal Quays Zavvi store closes

Jan 8 2009 By nebusiness

ADMINISTRATORS at troubled music retailer Zavvi have closed its store in Newcastle with the loss of six jobs.

Ernst & Young said the closures at the Royal Quays outlet would be effective immediately.

Joint administrator Tom Jack said: "Despite record consumer demand since Christmas, it is no longer possible to support continued trading across all of the Zavvi stores.

"Unfortunately the current difficulties faced on the UK high street seem to be discouraging retailers from investing in a significant number of new stores."

He said the 178 workers at the 22 stores across the UK would receive support from the Insolvency Service’s Redundancy Payment Office and Jobcentre Plus.

The remaining 92 Zavvi stores will continue to trade as efforts to sell the business continue.

Administrators said the workers facing redundancy on Thursday were permanent employees. There were no exact figures for temporary staff, but these have already left the stores after their contracts ran out on January 3.

Zavvi - the former Virgin Megastore chain - fell into administration on Christmas Eve after it was crippled by the collapse of Woolworths’ Entertainment UK wholesaling division.

EUK was the company’s main supplier and its demise left Zavvi unable to take customer orders.

Zavvi’s remaining outlets are now set to slash the price of their products by a further 20% to 50% from Friday.