Postman Pat, Basil Brush and Rupert Bear have had the stuffing knocked out of owners Entertainment Rights.
The group has £125 million debts and has nosedived from a market value of £267 million in March 2007 to £3 million on Christmas Eve. HBOS has agreed a £13 million cash flow lifeline until the end of February.
Adams, the children’s clothes outlet on the high street, has called Price Waterhouse Coopers as administrator.
The company - which makes clothes for Boots - has around 260 stores in the UK and employs around 2,000 people.
High street icon Woolworths has already gone into administration. Store closures started on Saturday with hundreds more to come this week.
MFI, as well as Zavvi, Whittard of Chelsea and The Officers Club all collapsed in the run up to Christmas - although Whittard and The Officers Club were sold on.
According to a new report from the Chartered Institute of Personnel Development (CIPD), they won’t be the last retailers to go out of business this year – 2009 will be the worst for employment for almost 20 years, with at least 600,000 people losing their jobs.
The CIPD warned unemployment would continue to rise in to 2010, taking the total number of jobs projected to be lost over the course of the recession to about a million.
The CIPD's annual Barometer Report, published today, predicts a net reduction in jobs of 600,000 in 2009 - after 150,000 this year - and a further 250,000 to come in 2010.
The CIPD's chief economist, John Philpott, warns that the period between new year and Easter will be the worst for redundancies since 1991, with up to 300,000 losing their jobs. This figure excludes jobs that may be created in that period.
The report, which surveyed 2,604 employees, also found employees felt little enthusiasm about their pay prospects. More than half expect to have their pay cut, frozen or increased at a lesser rate than this year.
In another sign of deteriorating confidence in the economy, the British Chambers of Commerce called for the national minimum wage not to be increased in 2009 to ease pressure on employers.
"We're not opposed to the minimum wage going up when employment is high and the economy is doing well, but when jobs are being lost daily and a recession is in full swing, it makes no sense to increase it," said director general David Frost. "Most businesses are prioritising survival at the moment. A rise in the minimum wage would not help firms hold on to staff and would simply add to unemployment."
The problem of unemployment is not confined to the UK. The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development said last week that 25 million jobs could be lost around the world as the financial crisis worsens.
The FTSE closed at 4216.60 on Christmas Eve and the DOW at 8515.55 on Boxing Day. Both markets are open for full trading.
The Pound is still edging painfully towards parity with the Euro – down from 1.05 Euros on Christmas Eve to 1.04 today. Against the US Dollar, the Pound is down 2 cents at $1.46
