NEARLY 50 staff at the Birthdays head office in Bury have lost their jobs following the nationwide collapse of the greetings cards company.

They are among 750 employees nationwide who have been made redundant after the business was put into administration in May.

But parent company Clintons threw an 11th-hour lifeline to 1,450 other staff when they bought 196 of Birthdays’ 332 stores for £3.5 million from the receivers.

Essex-based greetings cards giants Clintons placed their subsidiary Birthdays into administration due to ongoing losses and because there was little prospect of Birthdays generating a profit in the near future. Among the 750 casualties are 45 staff who worked at the Bury company’s headquarters in Dumers Lane. The building closed down on Tuesday.

Birthdays was originally bought by Clinton Cards in a £46.4 million takeover deal in December, 2004.

The 196 stores just purchased will continue to be operated under the Birthdays brand, which Clintons has also acquired.

Peter Saville, partner at administrators Zolfo Cooper Europe, said: “We are delighted to announce that the sale has been completed, which has preserved approximately 1,450 jobs and offered the best return to unsecured creditors from all the offers received.Securing the future of the business has meant that a number of very difficult decisions had to be made. Without being able to secure a buyer for the remaining stores it was not possible for them to continue trading, and this has regrettably led to the loss of a number of jobs.”

The shutdown of the Birthdays’ HQ in Bury comes 23 years after the famous brand was launched by well-known Bury businessman Ron Wood. In 1996, he sold out to City investors in a £90 million deal. In 2003, Birthdays was bought for more than £60 million by companies controlled by Scottish-based West Coast Capital. They, in turn, sold it to Clintons.