Fashion jobs in jeopardy

Staff at the Rustington branches of QS, formerly Quality Seconds, are uncertain of their futures after the company's owners, Hamsard 2353, who also own the BeWise fashion chain, went into administration last Thursday.

Employees, who heard the news on Monday, now face a nervous wait to see if their jobs are safe after administrators Grant Thornton confirmed there will be store closures and redundancies.

The Rustington stores are both in The Street, one specialising in adult clothes and the other in children's wear.

The shops will continue to trade while the administrators review the company's financial position.

The QS Group, which also has branches in Worthing, Goring and Shoreham among its 180 stores nationwide, has its headquarters in Fishersgate.

The group suffered poor trading over Christmas and January as it battled in the competitive value clothing market against rival chains such as Asda and Primark.

Administrators' spokesman Trevor Phillips said when and where those closures would take place was still being decided and could not offer any specific timescale on the closures or estimate the number of jobs that will be lost.

He said: "No deadline has been set, there's no real time frame other than as they make decisions, the affected people will be informed.

"It's going to be a question of identifying which stores are going to close and that will affect the staff numbers."

He added: "In terms of a business plan the administrators are confident they will be able to save the business.

"There will be some store closures and job losses but at the moment it is not clear where or when they will happen."

The manager of the Rustington stores was not available for comment.

QS evolved from a London-based manufacturer in the 1930s to selling Marks and Spencer cast-offs in the 1960s and 1970s, when the stores traded as Quality Seconds.

The sale of seconds ended in the 1980s and the stores went under the name QS in 1987.