SOUTHAMPTON staff of music chain Fopp are among 700 to be axed in the UK by administrators of the collapsed business.

Receivers Ernst & Young dismissed 700 of the 800-strong workforce after failing to win agreement from suppliers such as Universal, Sony BMG and EMI to continue trading.

It's a blow for staff at the two Southampton shops, which, as reported in yesterday's Daily Echo, had been closed temporarily but now look unlikely to reopen.

The chain, which had branches in the Marlands Shopping Centre and East Street in Southampton, was a victim of the rise of Internet downloads and a slump in CD sales.

Founded by Gordon Montgomery from a single stall in Glasgow 25 years ago, Fopp today owes about £20m to creditors, including its bank, HBOS.

Colin Dempster, one of the joint administrators, said: "It is unfortunate that we have had to make these redundancies but we are not in a position to reopen the stores until we have the agreement of suppliers who control the licences to sell stock.

"We would urge anyone with a genuine interest in taking on stores as going concerns to contact us immediately. In the meantime, we wanted to ensure that employees have the opportunity to claim their statutory entitlements through the redundancy fund as soon as possible."