362 Phones 4U stores will close, resulting in 1,700 job losses

It’s been a bad time for Phones 4U, and despite the fact that companies like Vodafone, EE, and Dixons Carphone have purchased some of the failing chain’s stores, administrators have announced that 362 stores will close permanently, which will result in 1,700 job losses.

720 Phones 4U staff are being kept on temporarily in order to close down the stores, but they too will be made redundant after which the total number of job losses will be 2,400.

Roughly 1,259 jobs have been saved thanks to the three other companies, but since Phones 4U employed 5,596 people it leaves 1,110 jobs up in the air. Presumably there is little hope for those jobs being saved unless another company comes along to save them.

In a statement, Rob Hunt, joint administrator and partner at PwC, 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.”