Clothes retailer M&Co is to close all of its 170 stores this Spring, including the store on Crowborough High Street and five others in Sussex – in Hove, Lewes, Seaford, Bexhill and East Grinstead.
The company, which used to be known as Mackays, appointed administrators for a second time at the end of last year.
The chain was bought by AK Retail however it was announced on social media that the deal did not include the stores or staff:
Unfortunately we haven’t received the news we would have hoped for during our administration period, and would like to share this news with you.
As we haven’t received any funded, deliverable offers that would result in the transfer of the company’s stores or staff to a potential buyer, this means that all of our stores will close.
The M&Co ‘brand’ has been purchased, but unfortunately this does not include a future for our stores, website or staff.
M&Co Statement on Facebook
Mackays was established as a pawnbrokers in Paisley in 1834. It switched to selling clothes in 1953, led by brothers Len and Ian McGeoch, and re-branded as M&Co in 2005.
It previously went into administration in 2020, when it lost 47 stores and 380 staff, but assets were immediately bought back by the family that built it up.
This is as bad as Tesco buying Paperchase and letting all its staff be sacked. Who on earth is AK Retail? They are doing the same: sacking all M&Co’s staff. When will these vile vultures develop a moral code?