M&Co's brand and intellectual property has been bought out of administration for an undisclosed sum by AK Retail Holdings.
However, the Paisley-based clothing retailer's store estate was not part of the purchase by the Peterborough-based group behind Yours Clothing, Long Tall Sally, BadRhino and Bump It Up Maternity.
M&Co appointed Teneo Financial Advisory as administrators in December. At the time, it had 170 stores and 1,910 staff.
The closures were announced on Facebook, with the post reading: “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.
“We will trade all of our stores until Easter, and then begin the close down process.”
The administration came with a raft of redundancies, which included several senior staff members, like chief financial officer Iain Scott and head of marketing Gerard Gavan.
Teneo stated that it does not anticipate receiving bids for the business as a going concern.
M&Co first fell into administration in 2020, but was bought by its Scottish owners, the McGeoch family.
The business can trace its roots to 1834. It became Mackays Stores in 1953, before being rebranded as M&Co in 2005.
A statement from AK Retail said read: “M&Co was put into administration for the second time in December.
“Chief executive Andrew Killingsworth said that he is delighted that this longstanding brand would be kept alive.
“At the moment we are considering all options as we continue to work with our online, third party partners and others.”
Don't miss the latest headlines with our twice-daily newsletter - sign up here for free.
