"PIG sick" – that was the feeling today among Allders staff following the announcement the store is to close.Around 250 Ipswich workers will lose their jobs when the shop closes its doors following the collapse of the troubled chain of 45 stores.
"PIG sick" – that was the feeling today among Allders staff following the announcement the store is to close.
Around 250 Ipswich workers will lose their jobs when the shop closes its doors following the collapse of the troubled chain of 45 stores.
One woman, who did not want to be named, today said staff had been told not to discuss the closure but added: "Pig sick is how I feel, absolutely pig sick.
"We are all out of a job."
A consortium made up of Debenhams, BHS and Primark have bought up 35 Allders stores but Ipswich is one of ten places they have no interest in because all three companies already have bases in the town.
A closing down sale has already started and the store is expected to be shut down by March.
Negotiations to lease the Allders store to a new retailer are now underway.
It is possible the space could become either a John Lewis or House of Fraser department store, but Buttermarket Centre manager Colin Roberts yesterday told The Evening Star that neither company had shown any interest in the town before.
If the full 120,000 square feet can't be leased to one company it may have to split up to entice smaller stores – or even partially converted into flats.
The 250 job losses in Ipswich are part of a total of 700 losses in East Anglia.
As well as the Ipswich department store, the ten branches left without a buyer include the Chelmsford homewares shop and London's Oxford Street branch which opened just two years ago.
Corporate recovery firm Kroll, which is now in control of Allders, has refused to confirm who the 35 stores are being sold to, but has confirmed it has abandoned plans to sell the business as a going concern.
Do you work for Allders? How have you reacted to the news? Write in to Your Letters, Evening Star, 30 Lower Brook Street, Ipswich, IP4 1AN or e-mail eveningstarletters@eveningstar.co.uk
Opinion – Page 6.
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