The former Somerfield store on Hams Road in Lydney and the High Street shop in Coleford will close after April 23.
BDO LLP business restructuring partners, Simon Girling and Danny Dartnaill were appointed joint administrators over County Stores Holdings Limited, County Stores (Grocers) Limited and County Stores (Supermarkets) Limited (together, the Group) on 6 April 2017 who own the stores.
Together, the two businesses employed 68 staff (23 at Coleford and 45 at Lydney).
A total of 17 staff have been made redundant following the appointment of administrators, with the remainder currently retained to assist with a stock clearance sale.
Simon Girling, business restructuring partner at BDO said: “Unfortunately, difficult trading conditions and a shortfall in the company’s working capital position significantly affected the business and the ongoing viability of the stores in Lydney and Coleford.
“Regrettably, it has been necessary to make redundancies.
“Going forward, the joint administrators will be seeking to maximise recoveries for the benefit of creditors and will be pursuing a stock clearance at the Lydney and Coleford stores while the administration process continues.
“We are in close contact with staff who will be kept appraised of further developments.”
The group ran its own small savings stamp scheme (not a NISA scheme) for local customers of the stores.
Due to the insolvency process, customers’ savings stamps will only be redeemable against purchases from the stores in the period up to Sunday 23 April.
Civic leaders fear the continued closure of shops will turn Lydney into the takeaway and hairdressing capital of the Forest.
District Councillor Bill Osborne (Ind) “It’s not good for Lydney to lose another store.
“The shop was quite a useful community store and lately there have been quite a few closures.
“If this trend of closing shops continues soon there will only be takeaways, estate agents and hairdressers in this town.”
Alan Preest (Con), county councillor for Lydney, said it was very sad to see the town lose a great community shop.
“It’s very sad. Another empty shop. I hope we can attract a retailer like Lidl or Aldi.
“The store used to be Kwik Save, then it became Somerfield and later it became a Harry Tuffins store. It was a great community shop and we will need to fill the building.”