Collapsed retailer ModelZone has made 20 head office redundancies after collapsing into administration last week.

ModelZone, which operates 47 stores, informed its 70-strong head office team of the job cuts on Friday. The redundancies at its head office site in Lancing, West Sussex are the first since the retailer appointed administrator Deloitte on Tuesday, as revealed by Retail-week.com.

The business collapsed after mounting losses due to unprofitable new stores and growing online competition.

Its store staff remain unaffected by the cuts currently. Until now ModelZone had employed a total of 400 people.

Deloitte joint administrator Richard Hawes said: “We have been reviewing Modelzone’s operations closely to ensure as much value as possible is realised for all creditors during the administration. Unfortunately, as a result of this review, a number of redundancies at the head office have been made. While this has not been an easy decision, it is a crucial one as part of the restructuring of the business.

“We would like to thanks all staff for their continued support during the administration.”

ModelZone was one of three retailers to collapse last week after Internaçionale and Dwell both filed for administration.