23 May 2012 Last updated at 10:50 ET

Clinton Cards to close Scottish stores

Clintons was once the UKs biggest greetings card retailer with 8,000 staff

A total of 14 Scottish Clinton Cards stores are to close at the end of this month with the loss of about 100 jobs.

Ten of the shops are Clinton shops and four are Birthdays-branded stores. A decision about the future of the remaining outlets will be made in the next few weeks.

The company went into administration earlier this month.

Founded in 1968, it was the UK's biggest card retailer and before its collapse employed about 8,000 staff.

Overall in the UK, 44 shops are to close.

The affected Clinton Card stores in Scotland are in Airdrie, Coatbridge, Edinburgh - The Fort, Galashiels, Glasgow - Byres Road, Glasgow - Sauchiehall Street, Greenock, Hamilton, Paisley and Stirling.

The four Birthdays shops to close are in Cumbernauld, Dalkeith Falkirk and Fort William.

In March, Clinton Cards reported a loss of £3.7m for the six months to the end of January and said the outlook for 2012 was worse than previously thought.

It had loans of £35m to banks, which were then sold on its supplier, American Greetings.

While the banks had waived certain conditions for the loans, American Greetings had pressed for repayments that Clinton Cards could not meet.

The administrators Zolfo Cooper said it expected further closures among the remaining outlets in the coming weeks although it said it could not rule out the possibility of some stores earmarked for closure being saved.

Peter Saville, Joint Administrator and Partner at Zolfo Cooper said: "We have received expressions of interest from a number of third parties and are confident that the remaining retail estate will be better placed going forward.

"It appears unlikely, however, that we will be able to find a buyer for the majority of the Birthdays stores and our analysis highlights that we cannot justify continuing to trade certain Birthdays and Clinton Cards stores into June.

"As a result, there is no alternative option but to close these 44 stores in May."