For Sale signs up at Kwik Save
For sale notices were today going up on former Kwik Save stores in the Black Country and Staffordshire, among 187 being sold nationwide in the wake of the supermarket's collapse.
Staff at closed stores, who worked on without pay, were told they will get nothing from administrators, KPMG and will have to apply to government agencies. Chris Monk, partner in charge of King Sturge in the Midlands, said they wanted offers on individual units or a group basis.
The Black Country stores to be sold are in Cradley Road, Netherton; Peartree Lane, Cinder Bank, Dudley, Great Bridge Street, Tipton; Princes End, High Street, Tipton; Salters Road, Walsall Wood; Oldbury Road, Rowley Regis; West Smethwick Shopping Centre, in Warley; Sandwell Centre in West Bromwich; and Warstones Drive, Penn, Wolverhampton.
In Staffordshire stores for sale include those in Surrey Close, Cannock; Market Street, Hednesford and Tamworth Road, Lichfield.
About 600 jobs at Kwik Save were saved in an £18 million deal to sell 56 branches to the new FreshXpress chain, understood to be backed by Irish entrepreneue Brendan Murtagh.
Three Black Country stores are thought be part of FreshXpress: in Kent Street, Gornal; High Street, Cradley Heath; and Upper High Street, Wednesbury.
KPMG say staff at the saved stores would be paid wages arrears but those in closed branches may face a six week wait to get money through the Government's insolvency service, on top of the six weeks they worked without pay in a bid to keep Kwik Save afloat.
Paul Clarke, of shopworkers union Usdaw, said: "It's a slap in the face for those workers who have done everything possible to support the company and at the end of the day they have ended up in unbelievable hardship and poverty."
The Kwik Save chain had been in increasing trouble since it was sold off by Somerfield last year, with shelves left empty as it lost customers to German-owned rivals such as Aldi and Lidl.
