Cooplands of Doncaster has undergone a pre-pack administration with the loss of 300 jobs.

Adrian Berry and Daniel Butters, partners of Deloitte, were earlier appointed as joint administrators of Cooplands, before selling 41 of the leasehold stores and the entire mobile sandwich van fleet through a pre-packaged sale, which secures 259 jobs.

However, 39 stores, together with Cooplands’ bakery and head office in Doncaster have closed, resulting in the overall loss of 303 jobs.

Berry said: “Cooplands has seen a recent deterioration in trading performance across its retail business, which, combined with a significant fixed manufacturing cost, has resulted in unsustainable losses.

“Regrettably we have had to close 39 retail stores together with the bakery and head office in Doncaster. However, there is some positive news today with the sale of 41 retail stores and the entire mobile sandwich van business, which will preserve 259 jobs.”

The bakery chain, founded in 1932, has been sold to ReSolve, the London-based corporate restructure specialists.

A press release from the company said: "ReSolve are pleased to announce the purchase of the majority of Cooplands (Doncaster) stores preserving over 260 jobs across the local area.

"Cooplands will continue to focus on providing great customer service and the best quality products at competitive prices.  To celebrate the purchase, Cooplands will be introducing some great new offers from tomorrow."

The chain had expanded in recent years and stores had also been refurbished – but employees received a letter last week, which said: “We have all worked hard over the last 12 months to try and stem the losses, but unfortunately everybody’s efforts have been in vain.

“Unfortunately the result of this is that the business cannot sustain its current cost base and this has an impact on the number of employees that we can employ in the foreseeable future.

“Regrettably we now therefore have to consider the loss of job roles across all areas of the business.”

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