UK department store British Home Stores (BHS) has officially gone into administration after failing to agree a last-minute deal.
The demise of the retailer, which has 164 shops across the UK, follows the collapse of Dutch department store V&D earlier this year and is the biggest failure on the UK high street since that of Woolworths in 2008.
Duff & Phelps has been appointed as administrators and will keep stores open as it tries to find a buyer for BHS.
British Home Stores was previously owned by Arcadia boss, Philip Green, who bought it in 2000 for £200 mln (€258 mln) and sold it to consortium Retail Acquisitions, for £1 in March last year. According to reports, BHS is over £1 bn in debt.
