Off licence and convenience stores business Wine Cellar has entered administration.

Bill Dawson and Daniel Butters of Deloitte were appointed joint administrators of the northern-based operators, which runs 170 stores under brand names Booze Buster, Simply Drinks and Simply Food & Drinks.

The majority of the stores and stock have been sold to EFB Retail.

The sale saves 109 stores and protects 640 jobs, plus 60 staff from its head office.

However 61 stores have been close and 320 staff made redundant.

"We will be working closely with the Redundancy Payments Office to provide support for these staff," said Dawson.

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