THE administrators of music and DVD chain Zavvi has announced the closure of 15 more stores, including three in East Anglia.

THE administrators of music and DVD chain Zavvi have announced the closure of 15 more stores, including three in East Anglia.

The closures, taking effect from today, involve the redundancy of 295 staff, the administrators from accountancy firm Ernst & Young said.

They include the Zavvi stores in Ipswich and Colchester, each of which have a staff of 17, and the firm's Norwich branch, with a workforce of 25.

The administrators said they continued “to work closely” with the Insolvency Service's Redundancy Payment Office and Job Centre Plus to provide support and advice to all employees made redundant, including a fast track process for paying redundancy entitlements.

Tom Jack, joint administrator, said: “We continue to trade 48 stores in the UK, however in doing so we have to manage the cost base of the company with a view to maximising returns to creditors. This includes a constant re-evaluation of our property portfolio in line with trading performance.

“Consequently, with reducing stock levels we have had to manage our cost base accordingly and close a further 15 stores.

“At this time we are continuing to look to further progress interest from a number of interested parties and consequently do not have a formal closure plan for the entire store network.

“We are extremely grateful to the staff and management at all stores and the head office for their fantastic support throughout this difficult time.

“We would like to thank Job Centre Plus and The Redundancy Payments Office for their continued support in this matter.”