Clothing retailer M&Co to shut 11 stores in Yorkshire - full list of affected locations

However, branches around the UK announced on social media that the deal which has been agreed did not include the stores or staff.

M&Co has about 170 branches around the UK.

According to the M&Co website, in the Yorkshire and Humber region these currently include stores in Wetherby, Otley, Brighouse, Malton, Ilkley, Driffield, Beverley, Bridlington, Ripon, Whitby and Northallerton.

In a post on Facebook, the stores said: “Unfortunately we haven’t received the news we would have hoped for during our administration period, and would like to share this news with you.

“As we haven’t received any funded, deliverable offers that would result in the transfer of the company’s stores or staff to a potential buyer, this means that all of our stores will close.

“The M&Co Brand has been purchased, but unfortunately this does not include a future for our stores, website or staff.

“We will trade all of our stores until Easter, and then begin the close down process.

"We will update you closer to the time, of our actual closing date.”

M&Co, previously known as Mackays, is said to have started as a pawnbroker in Paisley, Renfrewshire, in the 19th century but switched to selling clothes in the 1950s.

The company website states: “When the McGeoch family started with just 6 shops in Glasgow, back in the 1960s, they never dreamt that 50 years later, they would have nearly 200 stores on almost every local high street across the country.

"It really is a family. Several outstanding members of our team have worked with us for more than 30 years and one in four of the team for more than 10 years.

"You won’t get this anywhere else.

"Loyalty is at the heart of everything we do and our caring spirit has helped build the tightly knit team, we rely on every day.”

AK Retail said it is “considering all options” for the future of the M&Co brand it now owns.

The Peterborough company, owners of Yours Clothing, BadRhino, Long Tall Sally and Pixiegirl, last week announced that it had purchased the M&Co brand from the administrators for an undisclosed sum.

AK Retail said: “M&Co was put into administration for the second time in December.

“Chief executive Andrew Killingsworth said that he is delighted that this longstanding brand would be kept alive.

“At the moment we are considering all options as we continue to work with our online, third party partners and others.”

Online and stores sales with substantial discounts are now being advertised ahead of the expected programme of shop closures in the coming months.