Bristol's Zavvi shops safe - for now

Staff at the three Bristol branches of music shop Zavvi will keep their jobs - for the moment.

Administrators for the firm have today annouced they will close 22 stores across the UK, with the loss of 178 jobs.

Bristol's stores, in The Mall at Cribbs Causeway, the Mall Galleries in Broadmead, and the new store at Cabot Circus, all escaped the cull, meaning 85 staff will keep their jobs.

Zavvi fell into administration on Christmas Eve, and administrators Ernst & Young are currently trying to sell all or part of it as a going concern.

Despite having received 60 expressions of interest, a spokeswoman for Ernst & Young said it was too early to say if there would be any more store closures and whether the Bristol shops would be safe.

The crisis brought a welcome break to Zavvi customers, who from Friday will get discounts of between 20 and 50 per cent across all the shop's products.

But people given Zavvi gift cards and vouchers for Christmas are still unable to redeem them in the stores, and instead have to write to the administrators to make a claim for their money back.

Zavvi, the former Virgin Megastore chain, fell into administration on December 24 after it was crippled by the collapse of Woolworths' Entertainment UK wholesaling division.

EUK was the company's main supplier, and its demise meant that Zavvi was unable to take customer orders.

The 22 stores that closed were either under-performing financially, or had leases that were unassignable, meaning they had terms and conditions preventing administrators transferring them to buyers of their choice.

Tom Jack, the joint administrator from Ernst & Young, 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.

"However, we intend to continue to trade the remaining Zavvi portfolio with a view to selling all or part of the Zavvi business as a going concern.

"So far we have received 60 expressions of interest which we continue to actively pursue.

"We are extremely grateful to the staff and management at all stores and the head office for their fantastic support throughout this difficult time.

"We would also like to thank Job Centre Plus and The Redundancy Payments Office for their support in this matter."

Administrators said the workers facing redundancy today 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.

Among the Zavvi stores to close are those at Clarks Village, in Street, and the Great Western Designer Outlet, in Swindon.