Staff arrive for work to be told ‘store is closing’

The Warminster branch of Bewise closed for business without telling the eight members of staff what was happening. Amanda Blood, 35, who has worked at the store for 11 months said: "I went to work as usual at about 8.30 and by 8.55 the area manager was stood at the door saying we are closing the shop and there is nothing we can do about it.

"It would be nice to know how the company can behave like this without giving us notice.

"I have three kids, so I've got mouths to feed and children to support." Employees at the Warminster store were sent an email on February 9 informing them the company was going into administration and this would mean an uncertain future.

However, according to acting store manager, Christina Strong, 53, the email did not contain any information that suggested closure of the branch was imminent, although it did leave staff fearing for their jobs. She is also annoyed they were not told about the closure until the day it happened, because management had known for a few days the shop was going to close.

Mrs Strong said: "The area manager said she had known about the closure the week before it happened, but said they could not tell us because of something to do with a redundancy package. "We have been left dangling on a bit of string. Each day we went to work was a bonus because we did not know if it would be our last day."

Bewise was taken over by the QS Group in 2003 and problems for staff in Warminster and at other smaller branches across the UK began when QS went into administration last month. Since going into administration some of the Bewise stores, which are not regarded as essential to the business, have been closed without giving notice to employees.

A spokesman for the administrators said: "There are a number of commercial reasons why the administrators are not able to give advance notice of a closure date." Bewise also has two branches in Trowbridge, although there are no plans to close either of them.