First Quench Retail to cut over 1,900 jobs

LONDON (Reuters) - Over 1,900 workers at , the group behind wine retailer chains Threshers and Wine Rack, are losing their jobs after the administrator failed to find buyers for 381 stores.

Administrator KPMG said on Friday it was in advanced talks to sell around 500 shops to a number of interested parties and that it had received interest from over 700 small local businesses and individuals in the sites that are being closed.

But it was unable to sell the 381 stores as going concerns and said most would close by December 16, with stock liquidation sales starting on November 24.

KPMG said 1,908 shop staff would lose their jobs and it was making a further 34 redundancies at First Quench's head office in Welwyn Garden City.

First Quench, which was backed by private equity firm Vision Capital, went into administration, a form of protection from creditors, in October and an initial 373 stores were closed shortly afterwards, with the loss of over 1,700 jobs.

(Reporting by Mark Potter; Editing by Greg Mahlich)