Clothing chains Peacocks and Jaeger have failed to find a buyer putting thousands of jobs at risk.
The two companies were put into administration on Thursday afternoon after a two-week deadline to find a buyer passed.
Earlier this month, a spokesperson for owner EWM Group said they had been speaking to several potential buyers who were interested in parts of the business.
Jaeger runs 76 stores and concessions and has 347 employees while Cardiff-based Peacocks has 4,369 staff across 423 stores.
It is understood that discussions on the sale of Peacocks were also hit by lockdown restrictions in Wales, with the company’s headquarters and distribution centre based in the centre of the capital city of Wales.
Tony Wright, joint administrator of the business from FRP Advisory, said: "Jaeger and Peacocks are attractive brands that have suffered the well-known challenges that many retailers face at present.
"We are in advanced discussions with a number of parties and working hard to secure a future for both businesses."
No redundancies have been announced yet and no stores have been closed.
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The losses would add to the more than 210,000 tracked by the PA news agency since the start of lockdown in March.
Edinburgh Woollen Mill was founded by Drew Stevenson in 1946 as the Langholm Dyeing and Finishing Company. Its first shop opened in Edinburgh in 1970.
The Edinburgh Woollen Mill (Group) Ltd (EWM Group) is now the holding company for three core brands: Edinburgh Woollen Mill, Jane Norman and Peacocks.
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A spokesperson for EWM Group said: "In recent weeks we have had constructive discussions with a number of potential buyers for Peacocks and Jaeger Ltd but the continuing deterioration of the retail sector due to the impact of the pandemic and second lockdown have made this process longer and more complex than we would have hoped.
"While those talks are ongoing, we no longer have an option to extend the standstill agreement originally imposed by the High Court six weeks ago any further."
The group operates close to a thousand stores in the 海角视频, comprising 265 Edinburgh Woollen Mill stores, 479 Peacocks stores, 107 Ponden Home stores, 88 tourist shops and visitor centres trading under various fascias (such as James Pringle Weavers), 27 destination sites combining all the Group's concepts and a number of tourist attractions, including the Scottish Deer Centre in Fife and the Scottish Wool Centre in Perthshire.