The empire of Sir Tom Hunter, the billionaire entrepreneur and philanthropist, unravelled further yesterday as one of his flagship ventures fell into administration.

Further gloom in the retail sector came last night as reports suggested that Debenhams, the UK’s largest department store chain, will have to raise more cash to tackle its debt burden. The board of Debenhams, which is part-owned by Baugur, the troubled Icelandic investment group, will meet next month to discuss its situation. Debenhams declined to comment.

USC, the 58-store fashion chain, called in PKF, the accountant, after facing a quarterly rent bill that traditionally falls due on Boxing Day. The company said that its turnaround had been derailed by the credit crunch. The chain’s difficulties are the latest in a series of setbacks for Sir Tom and will heap further misery on to the embattled retail sector.

USC’s administrator immediately sold up to 43 of the stores back to a subsidiary of Sir Tom’s West Coast Capital vehicle in a “pre-pack” deal. It plans to wind down the remainder, with the loss of up to 300 jobs.

The economic storm cutting a swathe through Britain’s high street retailers is set to worsen, warned Bryan Jackson, of PKF, today. He issued the prediction after being appointed administrator of the fashion chain.

Mr Jackson warned that other companies could find themselves in the same plight within weeks.

He said: “Unfortunately I can’t really see it finishing in the short term. I would imagine that the casualties will increase at the turn of the year.”

He told BBC Radio Scotland: “To have casualties before you even make (the turn of) the year is unusual in the retail sector.

“So I can only guess it will actually get worse in the New Year. And who knows when that will start to turn? I would certainly like to think and hope that by next Christmas things will be looking better rather than worse.”

Mr Jackson said the current situation, where retailers had not even lasted until Christmas, was “unprecedented.”

“With an absence of buyers, it makes more sense to try and pre-plan, because there are not many buyers out there,” he said.

“It’s so competitive that most people out there are wanting to see the back of their competitors rather than expand. So if the existing people involved, with additional support from outside, can plan to try to save the best bits of the business, that’s certainly better than letting the whole business collapse and all the jobs collapse with it.”

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