400 jobs go as Zavvi closes stores

More than 400 workers at high street music retailer Zavvi are to lose their jobs after administrators announced the closure of 18 stores.

The announcement came as administrators Ernst & Young said the sale of five outlets to rival HMV and a further five to Head Entertainment would preserve 271 jobs.

Zavvi will now disappear from the high street as the last 18 stores are earmarked for closure before Friday, with the loss of 446 jobs.

E&Y said another three stores were expected to be sold to Head on February 20 and the deal also included the sale of all remaining Zavvi stock.

Zavvi - the former Virgin Megastore chain - went into administration on Christmas Eve after it was crippled by the collapse of Woolworths' Entertainment UK wholesaling division.

It was the country's largest independent entertainment retailer, with 114 stores in the UK and 11 in Ireland and more than 2,300 full-time staff.

The stores set to close include its London Oxford Street branch, which employs 140 people. Zavvi's flagship Piccadilly store, where 110 people worked, was closed last month.

Bristol's Cabot Circus outlet, which employs 30 staff, Milton Keynes, where 35 people work, and the Manchester Trafford Centre, employing 24 people, are also among the closures.

Tom Jack, joint administrator of Zavvi UK, said the sale of up to 13 stores was a "fantastic result for the employees and customers of the stores concerned".

He said the deal with Head - a business jointly led by former Zavvi chief executive Simon Douglas - would ensure the transfer of a total of 249 jobs, assuming the final three stores were also sold.