Fears were mounting over the financial future of two struggling retailers last night as the carnage afflicting Britain's high streets showed little sign of easing.

Blooming Marvellous, a 14-store chain of maternity wear and accessories outlets, was reported to be on the brink of administration as the recession forces even its wealthier clientele to pare back their spending.

The chain is owned by Arev, the Icelandic investment group that also owns upmarket retailers including Aspinal of London, the leather-goods specialist, and Jones the Bootmaker.

Zolfo Cooper, the formerly Kroll-owned restructuring specialist that is advising Arev, is thought to be being lined up as administrator of Blooming Marvellous, which was bought by Arev for an estimated £5 million in 2007.

Arev is run by Jon Scheving Thorsteinsson, a former executive in Baugur, another Icelandic investment group that has been caught up in its country's banking crisis. In October, Iceland's Government was forced to shore up the country's crumbling banking sector. This left it with stakes in an array of retailers in the UK.

Amid reports that a Blooming Marvellous shop in Chester had just been closed and that others were fighting for survival, Blooming Marvellous's website was reporting technical difficulties yesterday and could not process orders or inquiries. Calls to Blooming Marvellous's head office in Ealing were not being put through, for unexplained reasons, and no company representative was made available for comment.

Calls to several stores showed that Blooming Marvellous continued to trade yesterday. Zolfo Cooper did not return calls.

Blooming Marvellous's troubles come as Mosaic, a fashion retailer part-owned by Baugur, was preparing to begin talks with its lenders in Kaupthing, the Icelandic bank, about a debt mountain estimated at £400 million. Mosaic is understood to be considering seeking a debt-for-equity swap with Kaupthing or asking for a capital injection.

It could mean that a potential buyer of Mosaic, such as Sir Philip Green, the retailing billionaire, would buy the debt from Kaupthing in order to win control. Mosaic declined to comment.