The retailer, which has 121 stores and employs 1,600 people, is thought to be lining up Ernst & Young as administrator
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A Republic store in Westfield shopping centre, Stratford. Photograph: Sean Dempsey/PA
More than 1,500 jobs are at risk as fashion chain Republic is expected to become the latest in a post-Christmas rush of retailers to collapse into administration.
The Leeds-based company, which has 121 stores and employs 1,600 people, is expected to appoint Ernst & Young as its administrator on Wednesday.
If it collapses, Republic will be the latest in a long list of retail failures since Christmas, including Jessops, HMV and Blockbuster, with the total loss of up to 10,000 jobs.
The youth fashion retailer has been hit by recent poor trading. Andy Bond, the former chief executive of Asda, quit as Republic's chairman last week as the company brought in KPMG to help it offload some of its stores.
Republic's profits collapsed by 86% to £3.7m in the year to January 2012.
The company was bought by private equity group TPG for £300m in 2010. Its previous owner, Change Capital Partners, a private equity firm run by former Marks & Spencer executives Luc Vandevelde and Roger Holmes, more than quadrupled its money by selling the chain to TPG.
TPG has twice been forced to pump in more cash to keep the chain afloat. In November TPG, Bond and Republic's founders pumped in £20m. At the time, TPG said it wanted to at least double the number of Republic stores in the UK and Ireland to more than 200.
The company closed individual stores' Twitter accounts last week after an HMV employee "live-tweeted" redundancies at the entertainment retailer, according to Drapers magazine.
Republic's main corporate Twitter account was still tweeting on Tuesday night. The account, @RepublicFashion, failed to respond to numerous tweets asking if it was going bust. Lesbinum asked: "NOOOO @republicfashion are going into administration :'("
Republic, TPG and Ernst & Young declined to comment.
The retailer was still offering vouchers for sale on its website on Tuesday afternoon . Retailers often refuse to accept vouchers as soon as a company enters administration.
HMV was forced to reverse its decision not to accept vouchers after Tory MP Sir Tony Baldry accused the retailer of theft.
Republic, which stocks brands such as G-Star, Levi's and Diesel, had been trying to negotiate a deal to cut its rent bill. It was attempting to switch from quarterly to monthly rent payments and reduce rates where it could.
The chain was founded in 1986 in Leeds by Tim Whitworth and Carl Brewins. Whitworth started selling clothes as a Saturday boy on a market stall and went on to build Republic into a nationwide chain.
He left the business last year and was replaced by Paul Sweetenham, the former boss of TK Maxx in Britain.
Whitworth is said to have amassed a £60m fortune, according totherichest.org. He reportedly owned 23% of the equity at the time of the sale to TPG.
Anusha Couttigane, a consultant at retail research group Conlumino, said : "Despite TPG, the US-based private equity group which owns the brand, claiming that underlying sales have remained strong, annual accounts for January 2012 indicated that gross profits were down by 9.17% and it appears little has changed since then.
"Nevertheless TPG cites crippling rental rates as the main cause for the company's breakdown, recently hiring KMPG in a desperate bid to offload some of its 121 stores.
"In light of this, news of its administration suggests that attempts to renegotiate monthly payments have failed, bringing the business to a complete standstill and landlords facing the prospect of more vacant units on the high street.
"Operating towards the value end of the market should have placed the retailer in a strong position to take advantage of the consumer trend towards low-cost fashion.
"However, its target youth market has been the hardest hit demographic of the recession and it has struggled to appeal to them as effectively as rivals such as Primark, ASOS or H&M.
"Fashion is a fast-moving industry where brand loyalty is fickle and Republic has failed to keep up with some pretty fierce competitors."
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