Clintons set to close around a fifth of its shops

Clintons, the greeting cards retailer, is set to shut around 20% of its shops in an effort to keep the company afloat.

Reports suggest that if the firm is not able to strike a deal it faces insolvency.

It would be the third time in 11 years that Clintons has faced acute financial difficulties - it had to be rescued in 2012 and again in 2019.

Clintons has been contacted by the BBC for comment.

The retailer has appointed restructuring experts FRP Advisory, which has declined to comment.

According to The Times, Clintons has 179 shops and wants to close 38 of its outlets. It employs around 1,400 people.

It is the second High Street company facing financial difficulties. Last week, Wilko warned that it is on the brink of collapse, putting 12,000 jobs at risk.

The homewares company, which has been trading for 93 years, said that it had filed a "notice of intention" (NOI) to appoint administrators.

Wilko's chief executive Mark Jackson said that Wilko has been working to secure funding for a turnaround plan and had received "an indicative offer that would meet all financial criteria".

"However, this offer could not be executed in the timelines required, which is why we took the difficult decision this week to file an NOI," Mr Jackson added.

At its height, Clintons had nearly 800 shops and employed 8,000 staff.

However, in 2012 it was forced to file for administration and was rescued by American Greetings, a supplier owned by the US-based Weiss family.

At that point, 350 shops were shut and nearly 3,000 employees lost their jobs.

The family rescued Clintons from administration again in 2019. More stores were shuttered and job cuts continued.

Clintons was founded in 1968 by Don Lewin, the son of an East End chimneysweep.

The business made Mr Lewin a multi-millionaire, earned him an OBE and inspired his autobiography "Think of a Card".

The same year that Mr Lewis founded Clintons in Epping, Essex, two students Judith Cash and Eddie Pond set up Paperchase, a rival greeting cards and stationery specialist.

However, Paperchase filed for administration in 2021 after Covid lockdowns forced many non-essential retailers to close their doors.

Tesco eventually bought Paperchase's brand and intellectual property. The chain's 106 shops in the UK and Ireland were not acquired and hundreds of people lost their jobs.