A MONMOUTH supermarket will close its doors this week with the loss of 21 jobs.

The Budgens store in the Oldway Centre was one of the victims of a voluntary closure agreement in the hopes of rescuing its parent company, the Food Retailer Group Ltd.

But in a statement on the company’s website, administrators confirmed that 34 of Budgens stores would close with the loss of more than 800 jobs.”

Joint administrator Mike Denny said: “Unfortunately, we have been unable to find a buyer and it is not commercially viable to continue trading the stores.

“We are working closely with the Co-op, USDAW and the relevant government agencies to ensure that all employees receive the maximum levels of practical and financial support through the redundancy process.”  

It comes as little comfort to the 21 loyal staff in Monmouth, some of whom have been at that premises since the store was a Somerfield branch.

When the Co-op attempted to strengthen its arm in the grocery trade by buying the Somerfield stores for £1.57 billion in 2008, it failed to foresee a £2.5 billion loss in 2013 which was largely prompted by a crisis at its banking arm.

The 36 Co-op supermarkets were snapped up by the Food Retailer Group for an undisclosed sum.

As part of the deal, all the stores were re-branded as Budgens supermarkets, with none of the 920 affected staff losing their jobs as they were transferred to the new business under an agreement.

However six months later, alarm bells were ringing and the Monmouth store became one of 12 stores to close in an attempt to weather the trading crisis, but it was too late for the group who called in the liquidators this week.

It is thought that Budgens franchises, such as the one operating at Overmonnow Garage and Chepstow’s A466 store will be unaffected.