More than 800 staff at Select Retail, the women's fashion chain, could lose their jobs in a matter of weeks after it emerged yesterday that the company has collapsed into administration.

UHY Hacker Young, the accountancy firm, was appointed to run Select five days ago despite a £13 million cash injection at the business in January that was supposed to have guaranteed its immediate future. UHY said that a management buyout team had agreed to buy half of Select's 250 stores, saving 1,000 jobs, but there was no buyer for the remaining 125 sites.

In a statement, UHY said these stores would be trading only in the short term, creating doubts over the future of the 800 staff left in the business.

Select's collapse is the latest in a series of administrations to have hit the retail sector since Christmas, including Dolcis, The Works, Base and Elvi, the fashion chain. Experts believe that several more mid-market companies could run into trouble in the coming weeks, with the March rent review expected to prove a tipping point for vulnerable groups.

Select was within days of going to the wall in January before Cafer Mahiroglu, a Turkish supplier, struck a deal to inject £13 million into the business.

At the time HBOS, the company's bankers, would renew an existing overdraft facility only if new funding could be brought in. Nigel Fisher, Select's co-founder and managing director, resigned on Friday without explanation. His decision is thought to have come just hours before UHY was brought in.

UHY yesterday signalled that Select had suffered from a further sharp fall in sales since Mr Mahiroglu's intervention. It said: “Select was placed into administration against a backdrop of its deteriorating trading performance in the first quarter of 2008.”

A number of investors are thought to be interested in picking up some of the remaining 125 sites.

Mr Fisher launched Select 25 years ago. In 2004, he began to move the company away from its “good value” roots and focus on the fast fashion market. The retailer first ran into difficulties last year.

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