Karen Millen and Oasis owner and jewellery chain latest retail victims

TWO more high street retail groups have become the latest victims of the economic downturn.

Mosaic, which owns chains including Karen Millen, Oasis, Coast, Warehouse and Principles has appointed administrators as has fashion jewellery retailer Diamonds and Pearls.

Administrators from Deloitte immediately completed a pre-pack deal for Warehouse, Oasis, Coast and Anoushka G to Aurora Fashions, a new company owned jointly by the former management of Mosaic and Icelandic bank Kaupthing.

Joint administrator Phil Bowers said the deal rescues 8,700 jobs and the new company will trade in 268 stores and 647 concessions across the UK. “This sale secures the future of these brands and provides funding going forward,” he added. 

Adminstrators will continue to trade the remaining Mosaic businesses, Principles and The Shoe Studio while they try to find a buyer for them.

Principles employs 2,300 staff and trades from 94 stores and another 300 concessions within other stores while The Shoe Studio has 1,870 staff and has 13 shops and 270 concessions.

Diamonds and Pearls has 91 high street stores including eight in Yorkshire in Castleford, Doncaster, Grimsby, Huddersfield, Hull, Keighley, Leeds and Scarborough.

Based in Bedford, it employs 300 people.

Myles Halley and Richard Philpott of KPMG have been appointed administrators of the chain and are currently trading the majority of the stores while looking at options for the business.

Mr Halley said: “We intend to trade the business whilst we seek a buyer as a going concern, however we envisage that certain of the loss making stores will be closed in the coming days and this is likely to result in a number of redundancies.”