A TOTAL of seven workers face losing their jobs following the closure of the borough’s branch of Phones 4u.
The Kingfisher Shopping Centre based store is one of 362 administrators have been unable to find a buyer for following the collapse of the mobile phone retailer.
Five staff have already been made redundant while two are being retained to help with the administration and closure programme.
The Staffordshire based retailer went into administration last week after EE – which owns the Orange and T-Mobile networks – said it would not sell phones and contracts through the stores. Vodafone had announced a similar move two weeks ago while 02 and Three had withdrawn their business prior to that.
Across the country 1,697 staff have lost their jobs with 720 being retained short-term to assist the administrators. However more than 2,000 jobs have been saved with EE buying 58 stores, Vodafone another 140 and Dixons Carphone taking on the 800 staff working at 160 Phones 4u sites within Currys/PC World stores.
Rob Hunt, joint administrator and PwC partner said: “It is with much regret we have made the difficult decision to close a large number of stores. It is a very sad day for the staff working at those locations and our thoughts are with them. We will make every effort to help the affected staff, working with the Phones 4u HR team over the coming days to support employees.”
The news comes as the latest unemployment figures for August show the number of people seeking work has fallen to its lowest level since June 2008.
Those claiming jobseekers allowance fell to 1,135 down 1,188 on the previous month.
