Tough times for staff in Peterborough as Beales goes into administration

The troubled retailer collapsed after the failure of efforts to find a buyer for the 139-year-old store.

Beales, which has 22 shops across the UK including one in Westgate, Peterborough, and in Spalding an Wisbech.has appointed KPMG as administrators.

It is understood there will be no immediate closures and Beales stores will continue to trade, although the website is offline.

Its collapse comes after new figures from the British Retail Consortium revealed that retail sales fell for the first time in a quarter of a century last year.