Closing time for Comet as shutters fall on stores

Beleaguered electrical goods chain Comet is set to close its doors for the final time tomorrow, heralding the loss of thousands more jobs just a week before Christmas.

Sources at administrator Deloitte said the retailer's final 50 stores will close after it failed to find a buyer for the business.

Around 3,500 of the group's 6,600 staff have already been cut or left since Deloitte was appointed in November, with nearly 3,000 more employees now poised to join them. Talks over a potential rescue of 140 Comet stores by a mystery property tycoon are unlikely to result in a deal, insiders say, with Deloitte selling off the rights to the brand and the web business.