Dixons Carphone, EE and Vodafone have all offered roles to a number of staff affected by the closure of Phones 4u stores. Over 5,500 staff worked for the retailer when it went into administration last week.
On Wednesday, Dixons Carphone agreed to offer roles to more than 800 staff working in the Phones 4u concessions within PC World and Currys stores.
This was followed by news that Vodafone UK had agreed to take on 140 of the Phones 4u stores together with of 887 jobs - and EE had agreed to acquire 58 Phones 4u stores, preserving 359 jobs. Both deals are subject to court approval today.
However, there have been 628 redundancies from the Phones 4u head office in Newcastle-under-Lyme, including a number of telesales staff. More than 400 head office employees are being retained by the administrators at the moment.
UPDATE: Court approval has been given for the Vodafone and EE deals, effectively securing the jobs of more than two thousand Phones 4u staff working in 198 stores and 160 concessions.
However, the administrators say it’s now necessary to close the remaining 362 stores, which means 1,697 staff employed at these locations will be made redundant. Another 720 have been kept on in the short term to help with the programme of closures.
Rob Hunt of PwC, who was appointed as one of the joint administrators, said “It is with much regret that we have today made the difficult decision to close a large number of stores. It is a very sad day for the staff working at those locations and our thoughts are with them. We will make every effort to help the affected staff, working with the Phones 4u HR team over the coming days to support employees.”