WORKERS at two Oxfordshire greetings cards stores have been left fearing for their jobs after the company was taken into administration.
About 20 staff at the Birthdays shops in the Castle Centre, Banbury and Templars Square, Cowley, face an uncertain future after parent company Clinton Cards revealed it could “no longer continue to provide funding to its loss making subsidiary”.
The deterioration in the economy had added to Birthdays' already struggling business and Clintons said 50 per cent of all the brand’s 332 UK stores were now loss-making.
Administrators at Zolfo Cooper said they will “explore all options available to secure the future of the Birthdays’ business” and it would continue to trade as normal.
Clinton Cards stores, which employ around 6,200 staff in 692 shops, are unaffected by the move and will continue to trade as normal.
The group’s chairman Don Lewin said: “It is with deep regret that we have taken the decision to place the Birthdays’ business into administration.
“Everyone at Birthdays has worked tirelessly to try and turn the business around and I would like to thank everybody for their hard work and dedication over the past five years.”
But he said Clintons could not sustain supporting Birthdays’ losses of around £7m a year with “limited opportunity to improve on that performance in the foreseeable future”.
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