Shock as Shrewsbury’s Ethel Austin store closes
Staff at a Shrewsbury clothing store were yesterday shocked to find out they had lost their jobs when the store ceased trading.
The Ethel Austin store in Shrewsbury’s Riverside Shopping Centre closed shortly after opening at around 9am yesterday morning.
Staff had just opened for the day, when an area manager arrived and told the workforce the store was to cease trading and closed the shutters.
The retailer which has a chain of stores across the country has been in and out of administration three times since April, 2008.
In April its new owners discovered a £5.5m stock “black hole” when they bought the business.
The amount of stock held by the company had been overstated by £5.5m when new owner Sue Townsend took over in August last year.
