MORE than a hundred jobs in the region were at risk last night as Merchant Retail announced it was selling two historic department stores.

Perfume retailer Merchant marked the end of an era yesterday when it announced the sale of its two remaining Joplings stores to Liverpool-based department store operator Owen Owen for £5m.

All jobs within the stores - Joplings in Sunderland, and Robbs at Hexham - are secure, but many of the 170 staff employed at Joplings' Sunderland head office could lose their jobs.

The sale of the Sunderland store and the Robbs-branded outlet in Hexham completes a disposal programme that has also seen Merchant pull the plug on sites in Northumberland and Leamington Spa.

Joplings, which was founded in 1804, is one of the North East's best-known companies, selling clothing, furniture, electrical appliances and household goods.

Merchant bought the chain in 1987 but decided to offload it due to a sales decline.

Under the new management's plans, the two stores will continue to trade under their current names and all 324 staff will keep their jobs.

Some of the 170 staff employed at Joplings' Sunderland head office will be transferred, but Merchant said there would be a number of redundancies. Consultations with staff are taking place.

The move will allow Merchant to focus on its perfume stores and its de Gruchy department store in Jersey, which has been operating independently.

Although the stores have an actual book value of £11.6m, shares in Merchant rose yesterday as investors expressed relief at the announcement, which was issued alongside Christmas sales figures.

Owen Owen has reduced its number of department stores from 13 to only one in Liverpool city centre over the past decade.

The remaining store, which has been trading for more than 150 years, operates under the name Lewis's, although it is not related to the John Lewis chain.

Its chief executive, David Thompson, said the sites were an excellent fit and would more than double turnover.

The announcement came as Merchant said the Perfume Shop saw like-for-like sales improve by six per cent in the eight weeks to January 8.

It said it was confident in the strength of the underlying business although the full year performance would depend on the Joplings disposal, which is due to be completed next month.