JOBS in North and East Yorkshire have been put at risk as another high-street retailer has gone into administration.

DIY and gardening retailer Focus DIY has appointed administrators Ernst & Young after it was unable to repay a loan.

The £450 million-turnover national chain, which is based in Crewe, has 3,920 staff at 175 stores nationwide, employing 30 staff in Harrogate, 19 in Beverley, 18 in Goole and 17 in Selby.

Joint administrators Simon Allport, Tom Jack and Alan Hudson, from Ernst & Young, said the stores would continue to trade while they sought to sell the business as a going concern.

Mr Allport said: “It is very much business as usual and we are grateful to all the group’s loyal customers, suppliers and employees for their continued support.

“Low consumer confidence and a very weak housing transaction market has impacted on Focus and placed considerable pressure on sales and margins. Despite management’s actions to tightly control costs and restructure the operations, unfortunately it has not been possible for the business to continue to trade outside of insolvency.”

Focus DIY was founded in 1987 when Bill Archer, of Crown Paints, merged two small DIY chains. The firm has since been owned by a number of venture capital firms.

It was most recently bought by Cerberus Capital Management from Apax Partners and Duke Street Capital for £1 in 2007, when it struggled with owing £180 million to its senior debt holders, including ING and HBOS, as well as £100 million to mezzanine bond holders such as Goldman Sachs.

Do It All, which was bought by Focus in 1998, was one of the pioneer retail branches on York’s Clifton Moor retail and industrial estate in 1988.

It closed in the mid-2000s.