ALMOST 1,700 jobs are to go at the collapsed mobile phone retailer Phones 4U, after the firm's administrators confirmed that 362 shops will close.
Stores closing in the North-East are those in Darlington, Bishop Auckland, Durham City, Gateshead, Newcastle, Metrocentre, Hartlepool, Middlesbrough, Richmond and South Shields, resulting in 40 redundancies.
Phones 4U last week failed to reach agreements to sell the services of mobile phone network companies Vodafone and EE.
The company had more than 700 outlets and 5,600 staff.
Earlier, EE confirmed that it was taking over 58 stores, and last week Vodafone agreed to take on 140 outlets.
Dixons Carphone also said last week that it would hire the 800 people who work in Phones 4U concessions at its Currys and PC World stores.
The administrators said that 720 staff had been retained in the short term to help with the closures.
"It is with much regret that we have today made the difficult decision to close a large number of stores," said Rob Hunt, from the administrators PwC.
"We will make every effort to help the affected staff, working with the Phones 4U HR team over the coming days to support employees."
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