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Retail & Consumer

Jack Wills to close eight stores after Sports Direct takeover

The stores are being closed after negotiations with landlords failed

Jack Wills' Derby store is one of eight set for closure(Image: Derby Telegraph)

Fashion chain Jack Wills is closing eight of its stores around the country less than two weeks after the company was saved from collapse.

The struggling fashion chain has revealed that its stores in Derby, Durham, Kingston, Marlborough, Reigate, Rock, St Albans and Tunbridge Wells.

The closures were announced by the company's new owner Sports Direct, which acquired the fashion chain out of administration on August 5. The decision to shut the shops leaves Jack Wills with 90 º£½ÇÊÓÆµ stores.

Jack Wills - which was founded in Salcombe, near Plymouth - had been struggling in the months leading up to its administration and had brought in Big Four accountancy firm KPMG to advise on its future.

The firm was eventually appointed as its administrator.

Its financial position had been significantly weakened when its owner Bluegem Capital Partners refused to inject more cash into the chain to save it.

(Image: PA)

In the end, Mike Ashley's Sports Direct beat off competition from Philip Day's The Edinburgh Woollen Mill to buy the firm in a pre-pack deal.

Eleven days on from the rescue, Sports Direct has confirmed it will close the eight stores after failing to negotiate new terms with its landlords.