Beatties, the model toy shop group, has gone into administrative receivership, leaving more than 100 staff without their jobs, it emerged yesterday. The Aberdeen shop is one of those to be shut.
Accountants Ernst & Young, which has been appointed administrative receivers of Beatties' holding company Era, said it had completed a deal to sell 13 of the chain's 26 stores, including the Glasgow and Ayr shops, to US group Hilco.
These will continue to trade, but the remaining 13 stores will close.
The group employed 250 staff, around 116 of whom have been transferred to Hilco, but the rest will be made redundant.
All that is left to sell is The Beatties Collection, a museum-quality collection of heritage transport toys, which is to be auctioned by Phillips with a reserve price of #50,000.
Chris Hill, of Ernst & Young, who with Alan Bloom has been appointed joint administrative receivers of Era, said: ''Beatties' fellow subsidiary and partial supplier, Richard Kohnstam, lost its licence to distribute Tamiya-branded radio-controlled toys and was wound down.
''This terminated a vital income stream at a time when Beatties' revenues continued to suffer from tough retail trading conditions, depressed stock levels and intense competition from the toys' multiples.''
Beatties and Richard Kohnstam, had been the subject of a restructuring initiative last year, and 34 of the then 60-strong Beatties chain were closed or sold.
The 13 Beatties sites which have been sold are in Ayr, Glasgow, Birmingham, Liverpool, Bristol, Gateshead Metro Centre, Holborn, Thurrock, Bromley, Kingston, Crawley, Romford and Reading.
Beatties sites to be closed are in Aberdeen, Newcastle, Banbury, Leeds, Blackpool, Newbury, Cardiff, Nottingham, Colchester, Portsmouth, Shef-field, Stirling and Woodley.
The Gilbow diecast model business is not in receivership and will be sold in the near future.
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