A Huddersfield mum-of-two has told of her despair after her employer PixiFotos made her and thousands of her colleagues nationally redundant without warning.

Photography studios PixiFoto ‘ceased trading’ yesterday (Wednesday) affecting all of it’s 49 photography studios in the UK, including one inside Mothercare at Huddersfield’s Great Northern Retail Park.

Business Recovery and Insolvency (BRI), a firm which is acting on behalf of PixiFoto, says customers will still get their prints and has urged them to contact them.

Kimberley Edwards, 31, is one of three staff affected at the Huddersfield store and received an email from the company on Monday ahead of a conference call the following day to hear the company has ceased trading.

Kimberley, of Dalton, said: “It’s not sunk in yet. I’m a single mum of two and I’ve been working with Pixifoto for 18 months.

“I was on a part-time contract but because we were short staffed I worked full-time hours. Now I’ve been told there’s no money to pay for wages and that I’ve not got a job.

“I’ve got rent and bills to pay and child care. I’ve started doing my CV already but with the school holidays coming it’s just a horrible situation.”

Kimberley said she had no warning that the company was about to close and was shocked by the way it’s been handled.

She added: “I’ve had problems before when my tax credits were stopped suddenly through no fault of my own and I had no money after rent for food, so I relied on the food bank in Huddersfield.

“I don’t want to go back to living like that.”

A statement from BRI reads: “PixiFoto ceased to trade on Wednesday 5 July 2017 resulting in the immediate closure of all 49 studios.

“The Company will be placed into liquidation on 3 August 2017 and it is anticipated that Peter Windatt and John Rimmer of BRI Business Recovery and Insolvency will be appointed joint liquidators. Notice of the liquidation will be circulated to creditors shortly.

“The closure of the Company has no impact on any Mothercare or Debenhams stores.”

The company informed customers who had already paid for prints that their orders would be fulfilled and to access those using the website and log in details already provided by the company.

If you have any problems accessing your prints, please contact Bob McDonald on 01604 595605.