Home shopping giant N Brown has emerged as the front runner to buy outsized fashion retailer High & Mighty.

High & Mighty, a family-run retailer with 23 stores, filed its intentions to appoint an administrator- a pre-pack is understood to be part of the sale process.

Sources said that staff at High & Mighty have been told that N Brown will be taking over the business.

High & Mighty was started as a mail order business in 1956.

Manchester-based N Brown runs mens online and catalogue plus-size offer Jacamo which it launched in 2007.  

N Brown declined to comment.