Closing date for Portsmouth's Toys R Us store revealed

The company has said the remaining 75 stores in the country will close by April 24, with the Portsmouth store closing on Friday April 20.

Moorfields Advisory Limited, administrators for the company, has confirmed all 2,054 employees nationwide have been informed and will be paid up until their last day of work.

Simon Thomas, joint administrator and partner at Moorfields, said: ‘We are grateful for the hard work of everybody at Toys “R” Us’ during this extremely difficult and challenging time.

’We are working closely with the 2,000 employees affected by the closures to ensure they receive the support they need for redundancy and other compensatory payments.’

Moorfields said at the time of the chain’s collapse that it is making ‘every effort’ to secure a buyer for all or part of the business, but no suitor materialised in what is proving to be a dire time for high street retailers.

The retail sector has had a dismal start to 2018, with the collapse of Toys R Us and Maplin and a host of firms undergoing painful restructurings, including New Look and eateries run by celebrity chef Jamie Oliver, as well as Byron and Prezzo.

Earlier today Carpetright announced plans to axe 300 jobs and close 81 stores as part of a restructure.