LONDON (Reuters) - A total of 2,356 employees of collapsed British courier and parcel firm City Link will be made redundant after talks over a potential life-saving bid for the company fell through, administrators said on Wednesday.
Coventry-based City Link, which pest control-to-hygiene group Rentokil Initial sold to private equity firm Better Capital for 1 pound last year, had long been losing money.
Joint administrator Hunter Kelly said earlier this month the losses reflected a combination of intense competition in the sector, changing customer and parcel recipient preferences, and difficulties for the company in reducing its cost base.
"It is with regret that we have to announce substantial redundancies at City Link Limited," Hunter Kelly said in a statement on Wednesday.
The 2,356 redundancies - out of a total of 2,727 staff - will be spread across the company's British sites.
It said the remaining 371 people had been retained to deal with parcels that are still within the company's network and to help wind down operations.
An offer had been made by a consortium which offered no money up front and "significantly undervalued" the assets to be acquired, Hunter Kelly added, without identifying the potential buyer.
"The administrators proposed an alternative structure that would be acceptable and common in these situations," it said. "The consortium, despite attempts to make them reconsider, declined to amend their original offer," it added.
(Reporting by Stephen Addison; Editing by Angus MacSwan)