The future's uncertain for Clinton Cards, High Street, Chatham

Dozens of jobs at greetings card shops across the county have been saved - but others are going and more remain at risk.

Clinton Cards collapsed into administration last month after falling victim to intense High Street competition and customer migration to online and digital greetings. The company operated under two brands - Clinton Cards and Birthdays.

Seventeen Clinton Cards outlets have been sold to Lakeshore Lending, a subsidiary of American Greetings Corporation.

They are in Ashford, Sittingbourne (The Forum), Bluewater (two stores) Canterbury (Gravel Walk), Folkestone (Sandgate Centre), Gravesend (St George’s Centre), Sevenoaks, Dover, Maidstone (two stores), Tenterden, Thanet (The Fort), Tonbridge and Tunbridge Wells.

Two Birthdays stores – in Chatham and Hempstead Valley – have also been bought by Lakeshore Lending.

But three are set to shut by June 21 – two in Dartford (The Orchards and the Priory Centre), and Faversham – in a 122-store closure programme. The Clinton Cards store in Hempstead Valley, Gillingham, has already closed.

The future of several others remains uncertain as administrators Zolfo Cooper try to find buyers. They are in Ashford, Chatham (High Street), Ramsgate (High Street) and Whitstable. A Birthdays store in Gravesend is still for sale.

At its height, Clinton Cards - once the UK’s largest specialist retailer of greetings cards and related products - had more than 750 stores and sales of £360m before the administrators were called in on May 9.

Hundreds of stores closed, leaving around 400 trading normally, a number judged to be viable in a challenging market. The sale of 397 stores to Lakeshore saved 4,500 jobs. But the closure of 43 on June 8 and a further 122 by June 21 has cost more than 1,000 jobs.

Peter Saville, joint administrator, said: "We have always been of the view that despite an intensely competitive retail environment and what proved to be excessively ambitious expansion plans in recent years, there was a strong underlying business contained within Clinton Cards.

"The significant number of credible expressions of interest we received for the business we have sold today, from both trade and financial buyers alike, is testament to this fact."

Administrators are now looking for buyers for the remaining stores.