Officers Club sold off and saved

Clothing retailer the Officers Club is to close 32 of its shops, but 118 will remain open and 900 jobs will be saved.

The chain was put up for sale by administrators PricewaterhouseCoopers last night and bought by a new firm run by Officers Club chief executive David Charlton.

Mr Charlton said: "We are very pleased to be able to secure this deal and protect the employment of over 900 people in the stores and head office.

"We welcome the opportunity to take the business forward and look forward to a successful future."

Officers Club follows Woolworths, Whittard of Chelsea and MFI which have all turned to adminstrators in recent weeks.

Begbies Traynor, a restructuring specialist, now estimates between ten and 15 major high street chains could turn to administrators before the middle of January.

Nick Hood at Begbies Traynor told the Independent: "January will see continued heavy discounting and many of the casualties that we are predicting to take place. But clearly many of the failures will turn out to be renewals or reorganisations and the stores will reopen under new management."