NEARLY 3,000 jobs are to be axed after the administrators of Clinton Cards announced plans to close 350 stores.

All of the group’s Birthdays stores, which include shops in Ipswich and Stowmarket, and roughly 200 Clintons-branded stores will close after administrators said the business was “burdened with an untenable retail estate”.

There are Clinton outlets in Ipswich, Felixstowe, Bury St Edmunds and Sudbury.

The decision will result in 2,800 full and part-time staff lose their jobs across the country in a wave of store closures starting next week and continuing into June.

Peter Saville, Simon Freakley and Anne O’Keefe, Partners at Corporate Advisory and Restructuring specialists Zolfo Cooper, were appointed Joint Administrators over Clinton Cards Plc and its subsidiaries, including Birthdays Retail Limited, on May 9.

The joint administrators say they and their teams have been working to assess and stabilise the company’s financial position with a view to preserving value and seeking to sell the business as a going concern.

“It has become clear that the business is burdened with an untenable retail estate and as such, the joint administrators have regrettably taken the decision to close approximately 350 stores from the total estate of 784 stores nationwide,” they said.

The stores include all stores branded as Birthdays and approximately 200 Clinton Cards branded stores.

The store closure programme will begin during the week commencing May 21 and continue into June.

Exact locations, timings and employee numbers will be confirmed shortly, the administrators say.

Peter Saville, Joint Administrator and Partner at Zolfo Cooper said: “Given the sheer size of the Clinton Cards retail estate and the overall performance, we were left with no alternative to today’s difficult decision. I am hopeful that the action we have taken will allow us to preserve value in the core underlying business, thereby allowing us and potential buyers to focus on a profitable and viable retail estate going forward.”