More than 2,000 people lost their jobs yesterday as First Quench’s administrators decided to close nearly 400 stores in the Threshers off-licence chain.

First Quench, the owner of Threshers, Wine Rack, Bottoms Up, The Local, Haddows and Victoria Wine chains, has cut 4,000 jobs since its demise on October 29.

The company fell apart in the face of competition from supermarket discounting. It lost £1.7 million before tax in the year to June 28, 2008, the latest period for which figures are available, on a turnover of £687 million.

In the immediate aftermath of the collapse, 373 stores were earmarked for closure, with plans for another 381 closures announced last week. KPMG, the administrators, announced 2,140 redundancies yesterday, bringing the total number of job losses to 4,048.

Stores earmarked for closure are holding closing-down sales but 247 stores have already shut their doors for good. Another 100 stores could be saved from closure, as KPMG remains in talks about selling them.

Richard Fleming, UK head of restructuring at KPMG, said: “Unfortunately, despite the initial high level of interest, it remains difficult for buyers to complete deals in the current tough market.

“However, we are still in talks regarding the sale of over 100 stores and hope to be able to make a further announcement about this shortly.

“We also remain hopeful that some of the 391 stores announced today might still be sold as going concerns before the closure process is completed but, with stock running low in the remaining stores, it has been necessary to make plans to close them.”

One successful sale has saved some Wine Rack stores and 90 jobs. Venus Wine & Spirit Merchants has bought the Wine Rack trading name and 13 better-performing stores in the South East. There are 370 stores trading under the Wine Rack name.

Laki Christoforou, the chairman of Venus, said: “The shops we are purchasing were all profitable, with excellent hard-working staff and managers and are well supported by customers in their areas. We are confident that Wine Rack can soon become a growing and thriving business again.”

Another eight stores have been sold to SEP Properties.

Before falling into administration, First Quench operated about 1,200 shops and employed about 6,300 staff.

Threshers was founded 112 years ago by Samuel Thresher. After becoming part of Whitbread, which owns the Costa coffee chain and Premier Inn, it was merged with Allied Domecq’s Victoria Wine in 1998 to create First Quench.

Nomura’s Principal Finance Group, the private equity firm, bought the company for £225 million in 2000.

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