INSOLVENCY outfit Leonard Curtis has helped secure the jobs of 1,500 staff at troubled menswear chain Blue Inc.
But some 580 jobs were lost and around 70 stores closed.
Blue Inc offloaded a number of leases by placing its subsidiary, A Levy & Son, into administration.
Neil Bennett and Alex Cadwallader of Leonard Curtis were appointed joint administrators to A Levy & Son on 19 January. Blue Inc will continue to trade from 158 stores after it bought the leases out of administration, securing some 1,500 jobs.
Neil Bennett, a director at Leonard Curtis, said that as a result of its intervention, Blue Inc “has protected the growth of the business by securing a more focused portfolio of stores, and thus, greater alignment with its customers as it continues to see the growth of online shopping as well as through bricks and mortar”.
A spokeswoman for Blue Inc said that while some of its stores had seen falling sales, the chain’s online offering had enjoyed a 50% uplift, reflecting a wider migration to shopping on the web.