3:20pm Saturday 21st November 2009
By Gareth Lewis
A FURTHER 14 Hampshire branches of ailing off licence chains Threshers and the Local are to shut with the loss of 65 jobs.
The blow comes just two weeks after a first batch of seven stores in the county were closed by administrators of the business, with the loss of dozens of jobs.
Cut-price booze sales of remaining stock are to start at the closing shops, including two branches each in Southampton and Fareham, and one each in Winchester and Eastleigh, on November 24. All 381 affected stores are expected to close by December 16, with a total UK job loss of 1,908 on top of the 1,708 that were axed a fortnight ago.
Bosses hope the sites may be snapped up by small businesses and individual entrepreneurs after major operators showed no interest in them. Hopes are now high for a sale of the remainder of the vast chain of shops, which can trace its roots back to 1897, when it was founded by Samuel Thresher before being taken over a number of times until First Quench was formed in 1998.
Thresher and the Local Parent First Quench – which also trades as Wine Rack, The Local, Haddows, Bottoms Up and Victoria Wine – fell into administration last month after struggling amid fierce competition for drink sales from superstores.
Administrator Richard Fleming, of KPMG, said: “We are now in advanced talks regarding the sale of the business with a number of interested parties and have ascertained that parts of the portfolio, consisting of just over 500 stores, are of interest to these potential purchasers.
These stores will continue to trade while we progress with our negotiations.
“Unfortunately there has not been sufficient interest in these 381 stores as part of the going concern sale, so we have no option but to close them. However, we have had an enormous amount of interest in these sites from over 700 small local businesses and private individuals.”
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