Threshers administrator to close nearly third of stores

LONDON (Reuters) – KPMG, the administrators of First Quench Retailing, which owns off-licence chains Threshers and Wine Rack, said on Thursday that 373 stores within the group will close, leading to over 1,738 redundancies.

First Quench Retailing, which went into administration last week, operates around 1,200 stores in Scotland, England and Wales and employs 6,300 people.

Richard Fleming of KPMG said 247 of the stores will continue to trade until November 25 and 126 until Dec 2nd. He added liquidation sales will take place at the loss-making stores, which are to be announced on Friday.

He added that they are confident of securing a sale for the remaining stores “in the coming weeks.”

(Reporting by Lorraine Turner; editing by Simon Jessop)