ANOTHER high street name is set to disappear from York’s city centre as Phones 4u calls in administrators putting more than 5,000 jobs at risk nationwide.

The mobile phone retailer’s shops in Spurriergate, Coney Street and Clifton Moor were among 550 across the UK to remain closed yesterday as the firm announced it was looking to appoint administrators from PwC.

The move came after the country’s biggest mobile operator EE announced it will not be renewing
its network agreement with Phones 4u, following in the footsteps of Vodafone which ended its contract two weeks ago, and O2 which stopped selling through the retailer earlier this year.

Phones 4u chief executive David Kassler said: “If the mobile network operators decline to supply
us, we do not have a business,” with the company stating that once appointed, administration will decide if the business can be reopened for trading.

The company’s private equity owner, BC Partners, which acquired the chain in 2011 in a £610
million deal, and is now facing debts of £635 million, said all mobile contracts bought through Phones 4u will remain unaffected and orders that have not yet been dispatched will be refunded.

Yesterday afternoon Phones 4u’s rival Dixons Carphone hinted on social networking site Twitter that it will work with administrators to help the some of 5,596 Phones 4u staff find alternative employment by highlighting at least 1,500 vacancies at Carphone Warehouse stores.

The 1,500 jobs, which were previously announced by the company, include vacancies at 30 Carphone-branded concessions inside Currys and PC World stores to open before Christmas.

The news comes less than a week after York’s La Senza shop started a closing down sale as the brand ceases all trading within the UK after a second fall into administration. Staff at the lingerie shop, in Coney Street, are among 752 to lose their jobs after administrators announced they are winding down the British arm of the label after failing to find a suitable buyer.