Children's clothing chain Adams is the latest company facing extinction on the high street after it applied to go into administration.

Children's clothing chain Adams is the latest company facing extinction on the high street after it applied to go into administration.

The firm has 260 stores in the UK, including 17 in Scotland, and more than 100 overseas and is reported to be in debt of more than £30m.

Officials at the firm applied to the administration court on Christmas Eve and PriceWaterhouseCoopers will take over the running of the company before the New Year.

The demise of Adams follows the collapse of Woolworths and Zavvi in the run up to Christmas, with Whittards of Chelsea tea shop and menswear chain The Officers Club rescued by new owners over the festive season.

The first Woolworths stores closed over the weekend with the remaining branches open until the end of January unless a new owner can be found.

John Lewis reported a "remarkable" start to its sale, although it has yet to be seen if a busy shopping season is enough to soothe the turbulence on the high street with large numbers of shoppers not enough to guarantee healthy profits for retailers when prices cut by up to 90%.

Workers at Adams appeared to be unaware of the development yesterday. At the branch in Glasgow's St Enoch Square, one employee, who asked not to be named, said: "We have been absolutely packed out in the run up to Christmas and, although business has been good, I would say that sales are down and targets have not been met."

Adams has had a difficult few years of trading and was rescued from administration in 2007 when Northern Irish businessman John Shannon bought the chain for £15m.

Shannon envisaged that he could turn Adams into the "Top Shop for Kids."

His restructuring of the company, which saw the closure of 42 branches, allowed it to recently return a small operating profit of £1.3m and turnover in 2008 was £160m. The store was thought to be out of intensive care.

But, as new owners are sought for the chain, which started with a single shop in Birmingham 75 years ago, it joins a string of stores which have floundered since the economy started to shrink.

No comment was available from Adams yesterday, but a spokeswoman for PriceWaterhouseCoopers confirmed that it was likely to be appointed as administrators for the company "over the next few days".

There was speculation yesterday that either Sainsbury's or Boots could buy out Adams, who already makes clothes for Britain's largest group of chemists under the Mini Mode label.

Competition from supermarket chains is said to have been the key threat to the clothing firm.

Begbies Traynor, the restructuring group, expects up to 15 retailers to go bust by the end of next month.

However, several high street giants yesterday reported a more upbeat picture as shoppers took advantage of massive reductions. John Lewis said it had a "remarkable" start to the sales season with women's clothing, technology, china and linen proving to be the most sought after items by shoppers.

The group began its clearance sale on Saturday and saw trade rocket to a record £21.3m- up 7% on the same day last year.

Managing director Andy Street said: "This is a remarkable result at any time and particularly so in this challenging economic climate.

"John Lewis customers are being judicious in their purchasing and recognise the outstanding quality and value of the products we have on offer, particularly in our home assortments as well as in audio visual and fashions."

Shoppers are reported to have been queuing from 3am in some parts of the UK to grab the best bargains but market analysts have reported that clothing sales are running 6 to 9% lower than this time last year, with electrical goods down 8% and household items down 10%.

Sales are expected to continue long after the traditional January window has closed in a bid to keep the high street moving.

The British Retail Consortium said yesterday that, while shoppers are heading to the high streets, many are spending cautiously.

Consortium spokesman Richard Dodd said: "There's no indication that fundamentals are going to change so customers will go on being reluctant to spend and retailers will have to go on offering big discounts and promotions in order to tempt them in, which is difficult for retailers.

"They have to be able to make an acceptable margin on what they sell in order to be able to cover their costs."

"There is no question that large numbers of shoppers turned out over the last two days. Boxing Day was certainly the biggest retail Boxing Day that we have seen as stores offered more discounts and bigger sales than they have in previous years.

"The key question though is how much people are actually spending. They are being very cautious.

"Generally speaking, retailers have had to do an enormous amount to tempt people in."

Mr Dodd said the good sales turnout and "a last-minute surge" before Christmas were unlikely to have compensated for the "long, difficult build-up".

"It's unlikely that the total value of sales will reach last year's."