BILLIONAIRE tycoon Philip Green has personally assured workers at the ill-fated Allders stores in York and Knaresborough that their jobs are safe in a phone call to the Evening Press.

The fifth richest man in Britain - whose personal fortune stands at £2.87 billion making him wealthier than Richard Branson and Paul McCartney - phoned the Press to reassure staff at the two stores after it emerged he is buying them.

The two sites will become part of a portfolio, which includes BHS.

But there was bad news for 42 staff at the Clifton Moor Allders store, which he is not interested in - no buyer has yet come forward for that site and a closing down sale has started there.

Speaking about the 43 staff at York's Piccadilly branch and of the 24 in Knaresborough, Mr Green said: "We are going to work with staff there. The intention is to use the staff."

Speaking specifically about the Piccadilly store he said: "We need to have a proper look and see what we are going to do with that location. It will be used as a store, but possibly for a different brand. I have not decided."

As well as BHS the entrepreneur owns the Arcadia Group, which includes the brands Burton, Dorothy Perkins, Evans, Miss Selfridges, Outfit, Topshop, Topman and Wallis.

The York Piccadilly and Knaresborough St James Retail Park stores are among ten that Mr Green has just acquired from Kroll, the Allders administrators, as part of his expanding empire.

The retail mogul hopes to open all his new stores under the BHS banner in May or June, but he stressed that he was unsure at this stage exactly what he planned for the Piccadilly store.

But he made it clear that the purchase of the site would not affect his two other BHS stores in York. The Coney Street branch would stay as would the BHS furnishings outlet at Monks Cross on the city's outskirts. "Nothing else we own will be affected," he said.

Mr Green, who bought Bhs in May, 2000, made his successful bid for an undisclosed sum in the wake of an unsuccessful £9 billion bid for Marks & Spencer last summer.

Updated: 10:59 Wednesday, February 16, 2005