Rate shops are shutting we will be only be able to shop at erm :-

Tesco

Asda

Sainsburys

Morrisons

Mind you Empire where a tad expensive (Glad didnt go to Merry Hill on sunday to order me new tv.)

Have used ED in the past and the service and pricing was good. But that was sometime ago. Has their service gone bad or are the 150 employees yet more victims of these stupid bankers who, it would appear, starved them of funds to trade.

Its a shame to lose people who actually provide a useful service. Empty places on the high street and net. Shame it isn't folks like RBS who had an apparently perfect record of putting money where they shouldn't (including the amazing Mr Madoff!) and then expecting us to bail them out.

And when it comes to administration the only people to benefit are the self same 'accountancy' firms that failed to spot and stop those balance sheet blackholes and the other major financial institutions. And accused forecasters like us that we didn't understand a financial instruments that they obviously had no real clue about.

Even telephone sanitisers are more use </rant>

My one and only experience with Empire was when I bought a PSP from them in 2005 and they sent a Japanese-spec version. This might have been manageable were it not for the fact that the functions for the O and X buttons are reversed on these consoles. I was left with an impression of a less-than-professional company cutting corners.

That said, it's always sad when a business goes titsup. Unfortunately there will be more retailers like Empire in the months to come.

"The company was one of the few alternatives to DSGi brands like Currys and PC World"

We need a list. Here is a start...

John Lewis (http://www.johnlewis.com/)

Hughes Direct (http://www.hughesdirect.co.uk)

Tesco Direct (http://direct.tesco.com/homepage/homeelectrical.aspx)

Co-op Electrical (http://www.coopelectricalshop.co.uk/)

Comet (http://www.comet.co.uk)

As DSGi may go bust anytime soon (and, based on previous comments, there will be little sympathy from El Reg readers), we need to know there is some competition in the UK...

Took her money and didn't deliver the goods (flat screen TV). Kept fobbing her off for weeks with on excuse after another, then kept lying to her and telling her they had issued a refund when they hadn't. Several times she had someone on the phone telling her they were authorising the refund as they spoke, and yet still nothing. Turns out they never had any stock of the TV in question from start to finish, and had taken her money under false pretences. She did a refund in the end but she was treated really badly from start to finish.

I'm not surprised at all by this news.

Thumbs up cos I won't miss them one bit.

RGB and superfi were nearly always cheaper.

If I was pricerunner I would be worried though - they are going to be comparing 1 site at this rate.

In their early days, Empire Direct were the ideal online reatailer: low prices, fast delivery and great service. Last year something seemed to go wrong, with prices shooting up to such a degree that Comet looked cheap by comparison.

What the *beep* happened? Management greed? High costs of running retail outlets? (I didn't know they had any until I read it here, I must admit)

Oh well, there are plenty of alternatives. Electrical123 are my current faves - they're actually the Co-Op, but with lower prices than Co-op Electrial.

I recently bough a TV off them with a 5 year warranty. I guess that is now not worth the email it's written on :(

"...yet more victims of these stupid bankers..."

The bankers played their part, definitely. But if you blame them you also need to blame those who borrowed money up to their eyeballs, thought house prices could only ever go up and believed money could be free via the amazing medium of 're-financing.'

That would be Joe Public, then. Thee and me. Bugger.

Mr and Mrs British-Voter also put Gordon's party in charge - thrice! And as Anonymous Coward implied at 12:45, that's going to prove a poor choice in time.

.......for ED demise.

Basically, if the banks hadn't lent money so freely in the first place, stores like Empire wouldn't have survived in the first place, with customers borrowing and companies like ED also borrowing, what a way to live.

As for morality of bankers and hedge funds, I still can't believe selling "short" is legal. Also, director's bonuses - this should be illegal. If a director is unable to do his job on a salary and needs a bonus to shift his arse then somethings smells worse then his hairy arse - greed!

I would rather wait a month for delivery then buy a keyboard from those charlatans.

I bought a netbook from them every couple of days the screen dies, but since their in house software testing doesn't find my hardware fault and testing for the hardware fault I described would be "an unreasonable demand on their time" they will not fix, replace or refund me in spite of the craptop being less then 5 months old. Buy from a supermarket at least they will not pretend they are qualified to assess faulty products and just give you the refund consumer law entitles you.

Flame cause I've been burnt and I look forward to watching them burn, after all before their shop opened there where lots of small helpful honest computer retailers who understood what the products they sold were used for.

I wonder how many disgruntled soon-to-be-former employees of the imploding retail sector are going to be raising a few beer tokens by pimping customer data and bank details to the highest bidder?

I blame the bankers as well. Their ridiculous 'free lunch' mentality has dug one hell of a deep hole. Funny how so many supposedly 'clever' people (or so we were told when the government wanted to act as apologists for the bonuses) actually weren't. At all.

Paris, proving that you don't need to be 'clever' to coin it.

I cannot tell you how shocked I am with the sad news of Empire Direct. Reading the statements from the Administrators, it seems that another fundamentally sound company was taken down by the credit insurers. Good companies can still make losses sometime in their life provided they can get themselves out of it with some support. Empire Direct had a solid track record for 25 years. I hope to see this company back in action very soon.

You think KPMG are bad? You're just lucky it's not BDO - they shut down every company they go into with no intention of delivering stock.

At least other companies sometimes try and keep the company going to sell it off as a going concern. BDO are the lovely company that made me redundant from unbeatable.co.uk in 2005 so I'm bound to hold a grudge :)

This company's balance sheet has been weak for several years now. Asset structure and funding was pointing to serious cash problems despite suggested historical profit and net assets. This "empire" was built on sand. Too much borrowing and debt and too much cash taken out in dividends. You can't pay bills with stock and buildings heavily mortgaged...it was bound to happen soon, events just speeded it up a little ...

There will be more like this....

How can a company with 150 jobs that makes an average turnover of £150 Million per year go out of business!!?! ... Thats a turnover of 1 Million per employee!!! ... surely there is enough income from £1M to pay someone's wages?!?? ... Sounds more like the bosses are raking in the huge wages and now while times are harder, they have canned the company, so they can sit on their savings from years of their big wages, until things improve. (I guess they will then go on to open new businesses once the economy improves ... So much for all the loyal staff now out of a job).

I've seen this business stunt before ... It keeps reminding me how so often staff loyalty isn't returned by bosses loyalty to staff, so no point in staff being loyal.

this company got rid of 150 of its 350 saff butt it still has the remaning staff working inside all its buildings dealing with the stock that is left inside right now, most of it new sealed stock , if i was still owed goods/money i would be waiting for the Management to open the gates and make sure i received my goods,£50/£2000 is some peoples life saving just for the Government

to say sorry but its tuff luck you have lost it.