Littlehampton and Rustington bookshops in the balance

British Bookshops called in administrators Zolfa Cooper, after earlier this month announcing 40 redundancies would be made at its head office in Brighton.

But as yet no job losses in shops themselves have been confirmed by the company, while administrators seek an 11th hour buyer to prevent it becoming another victim of the recession.

The administrators said that by the deadline of midnight on Tuesday, January 25, “a handful” of bids had been received for the business.

It reportedly owes around £10m to creditors, which led directly to it being placed into administration.

Zolfa Cooper would not comment on a report that British Bookshops’ managing director John Simpson was considering a management buy-out of the firm in a bid to ensure its survival.

The administrators employed GA Europe to dispose of its Christmas stock and revealed that poor trading figures towards the end of 2010 and bad weather in December had a negative impact on the book chain.

Posting on a discussion forum, one employee expressed extreme concern over the situation.

He said: “I am absolutely gutted. I just came back from holiday and first thing I see is closing down point of sale all round the front windows. Where did this all come from?”