Owner Modella starts insolvency proceedings for both chains, saying trading is ‘extremely challenging’

The retailers Claire’s and The Original Factory Shop are on the brink of administration, putting 2,550 jobs at risk.

Both chains are owned by Modella Capital, a private equity firm, which recently bought the high street arm of WH Smith – renamed TG Jones. Modella said in a statement that the climate on UK high streets was “extremely challenging” and data suggested “an alarming drop-off in pre-Christmas footfall”.

Nemiroff says products still reaching UK chains such as Sainsbury’s and Tesco despite production difficulties

Businesses in Ukraine are “not sitting and waiting for the war to end” and are working to expand despite bombs hitting shipments out of the country, according to a leading vodka exporter to the UK.

Yuriy Sorochynskyi, the chief executive of Ukraine’s largest spirits export brand, Nemiroff vodka, has said its products have continued to flow to big chains including Tesco and Sainsbury’s as it copes with the harsh realities of almost four years of war.