THE administrators of fashion chain D2 Jeans have sold 20 stores to a rival retailer in a move expected to save 200 jobs.
D2 Jeans collapsed shortly after Christmas with administrators closing 19 of its 47 stores, making 200 staff redundant and jeopardising hundreds more positions.
Blue Inc yesterday bought 20 of the 28 stores still being traded by the administrators from BDO which it will convert to its banner in the coming months.
Fashion retailer Blue Inc, which has been trading for nearly 100 years and whose backers include former Marks & Spencer boss Sir Stuart Rose, already has 171 stores and last year bought 46 Officers Club shops out of administration.
The D2 Jeans stores being bought include those in Cambridge and King’s Lynn.
Steven Cohen, managing director of Blue Inc, who led acquisition of the Mr Byrite clothing chain in 2006, said he believed there was “a bright future” for the 20 stores.
BDO business restructuring partner James Stephen said he would continue to hunt for a buyer for the rest of the stores in the hope of saving more jobs.
D2 Jeans was the first notable post-Christmas retail casualty. It is the second time in two years that the chain, first set up by Scottish entrepreneur Sir Tom Hunter, has gone into administration.
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