Zavvi administrator Ernst & Young has closed 22 of the retailer’s UK stores – leading to the redundancy of 178 employees.

That brings the total of Zavvi employees now without a job to 241, after 69 staff lost their jobs at the retailer's London HQ last week.

The Joint Administrators will continue to trade the remaining 92 stores throughout the UK. In a statement, Ernst & Young said it was ‘working closely with the Insolvency Service’s Redundancy Payment Office and Job Centre Plus to provide support and advice to all employees made redundant, including a fast track process for paying redundancy entitlements’.

Tom Jack, Joint Administrator from Ernst & Young, said:

“Despite record consumer demand since Christmas it is no longer possible to support continued trading across all of the Zavvi stores.  Unfortunately the current difficulties faced on the UK high street seem to be discouraging retailers from investing in a significant number of new stores."

“However, we intend to continue to trade the remaining zavvi portfolio with a view to selling all or part of the zavvi business as a going concern.  

“So far we have received 60 expressions of interest which we continue to actively pursue. We are extremely grateful to the staff and management at all stores and the head office for their fantastic support throughout this difficult time."

“We would also like to thank Job Centre Plus and The Redundancy Payments Office for their support in this matter.”