Staff have spoken of their “relief” after the sudden closure of a Huddersfield gaming store.
Grainger Games in the Piazza Centre failed to open on Wednesday after staff received an email telling them the shop was shutting down.
The company is believed to have closed 21 of its shops and taken its website off-line after hitting financial problems.
The company, which has 67 stores, emailed a third of its shops on Wednesday morning telling them not to open.
The email said: “We regret to inform you that we require you to close your store imminently due to the ongoing issues surrounding the business’s critical financial situation.
“Your store will unfortunately be closed as of today. Please DO NOT open your store this morning.”
The email added: “The business is still in discussions with potential bidders but unfortunately even though we have tried to avoid this situation your store could not be included as any part of any future bids therefore we have been left with no other choice than to cease trading as from today 28/03/2018.
“Staff in your stores will be paid for all hours worked through until 31st of March and we require you to assist us with this shutdown process using those hours.”
The shops to close included the ones in Huddersfield and the Princess of Wales shopping centre in Dewsbury.
Sam Parry, who was the manager at the Huddersfield shop, said five employees at the store faced redundancy.
He said staff feared the worse when they received an email from head office on March 20 telling them the company’s credit was being cut and they were talking to potential investors to save some of the stores.
Sam, 23, who had worked for the company for almost four years, said: “They said there was the potential for the store to be closing.
“They told us not to buy any phones or consoles and don’t buy anything for cash.
“They cut down the till floats and basically took all the money out of the store. We were supposed to have three deliveries a week but we hadn’t had anything for two weeks and we had no stock left. One day last week we only took £80.”
Sam said customers who had credit notes or who had paid deposits feared they would lose their money.
Staff had started to look for other jobs after the first email and it was a “bit of a relief” to know the shop was closing.
“From the email last week we all saw it coming but we’d been kept in the dark,” he said. “We’ve all started looking for new jobs.”
The Huddersfield store opened in 2011 as part of an expansion of a company which started life in 1997 as a stall on the famous Grainger Market in Newcastle.
