A further 3,200 retail jobs were put at risk last night after Adams, the children’s fashion chain, was forced to call in administrators. PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), which had been put on standby before Christmas, said yesterday that store closures were likely across Adams’s 271 outlets. An announcement is expected next week.

Unlike other retailers in administration, Adams has not agreed a pre-pack deal to deliver an instant buyer and save some parts of the business.

The 75-year-old chain is the latest casualty of a brutal Christmas trading period for retailers. Yesterday, the administrator recognised that trading conditions would hinder attempts to sell the business outright and warned that closures were likely. Rob Hunt, joint administrator and partner at PwC, said: “We are continuing to trade as we urgently review the company’s financial position to assess which stores can remain open.

“Adams Kids is a well-known brand and we remain hopeful that it will prove attractive to a purchaser. However, the difficulties in the retail environment are such that some store closures are likely.”

The retailer, which makes clothes for Boots through Mini Mode, has suffered from the downturn after being acquired from administration in 2007 by John Shannon, the entrepreneur.

Mr Shannon’s hopes of transforming the group into a fashion-led “Topshop for kids” were dashed by the downturn, which is thought to have helped the supermarkets take a bigger market share in children’s clothing.

Mini Mode, a joint venture between Adams and Boots that supplies adult swimwear and children’s wear to the pharmacy chain, has not been placed in administration.

The failure of Adams comes as retailers brace themselves for a wave of collapses this month. Experian, the consultancy, said yesterday that at least one shop in ten would lie empty next year. Zavvi, The Officers Club, Whittards of Chelsea and USC have all fallen into administration in the past ten days.

PwC estimates that 40 per cent of a retailer’s stores have to be jettisoned for a company to survive a restructuring or pre-pack administration, whereas last year the figure stood at 27 per cent. This has stark implications for the high street.

The number of retail failures rose sharply in 2008, according to Experian. A total of 1,137 retailers failed during the year, up 21 per cent from 2007. Analysts expect an acceleration in January as a combination of rent demands, the weak pound and banks reviewing their lending portfolios pushes struggling companies to collapse.

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