UK Liquor Store Chain To Close 373 Stores

November 05, 12:37 PM ET

LONDON (AP) - Britain's First Quench liquor store operator will close nearly a third of its 1,300 sites and fire more than 1,700 employees, administrator KPMG said Thursday.

First Quench Retailing Ltd. filed for administration, a form of bankruptcy protection, last week amid sharpened competition and declining demand brought on by the global economic downturn.

In a statement on Oct. 29, the group said that KPMG was trying to keep the company together in an effort to sell it off.

First Quench, formed in 1998 from the merger of Whitbread PLC and Allied Domecq's liquor businesses, owns the Threshers and Wine Rack liquor store chains as well as convenience stores under its The Local brand.

It had been struggling to survive Britain's recession, the deepest since World War II. The group warned earlier this year that some of its stores would close if it could not renegotiate rents with their landlords.

The job cuts announced Thursday represent about a fourth of its 6,500 staff.