Clothes retailer M&Co is to close all of its 170 stores this spring, with the loss of dozens jobs across Tayside and Fife.
The company has seven stores across Tayside and Fife.
It appointed administrators for a second time at the end of last year having previously collapsed in 2020.
The brand has been bought by AK Retail Holdings, which owns Yours Clothing.
However, the purchase does not include physical stores, meaning they will now close.
M&Co has stores in Broughty Ferry, St Andrews, Forfar, Blairgowrie, Perth, Glenrothes and Montrose.
It employs almost 2,000 people across the UK.
The closures were announced in social media posts by branches across the UK.
The Facebook post read: “Unfortunately we haven’t received the news we would have hoped for during our administration period, and would like to share this news with you.
“As we haven’t received any funded, deliverable offers that would result in the transfer of the company’s stores or staff to a potential buyer, this means that all of our stores will close.”
Mackays was established as a pawnbrokers in Paisley in 1834.
It switched to selling clothes in 1953, led by brothers Len and Ian McGeoch, and re-branded as M&Co in 2005. It was previously known as Mackays.
The business went into administration in 2020, when it lost 47 stores and 380 staff, but assets were immediately bought back by the family that built it up.
New M&Co owner ‘considering options’
AK Retail said it is “considering all options”.
The Peterborough company, owners of Yours Clothing, BadRhino, Long Tall Sally and Pixiegirl, last week announced that it had purchased the M&Co brand from the administrators for an undisclosed sum.
AK Retail said: “M&Co was put into administration for the second time in December.
“Chief executive Andrew Killingsworth said that he is delighted that this longstanding brand would be kept alive.
“We are considering all options as we continue to work with our online, third party partners and others.”
Ewan MacDonald-Russell, deputy head of the Scottish Retail Consortium, said it was “horrible news” for all affected employees.
He added: “It’s also another blow to Scotland’s high streets, where one in six stores are lying empty, especially the many smaller locations which will see the closure of another major brand.”
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