Jobs at two local jewellers are among more than 1,000 at risk after stricken pawnbroker Albemarle & Bond moved to appoint administrators.

The group, which has 188 stores across the UK, including the Herbert Brown shops in Bradford and Keighley, threw in the towel after lenders said this week that they did not consider options to save the business “capable of being completed”.

The appointment of PwC as administrators came as the Reading-based business admitted that, with no financial support from lenders and mounting trading losses, it would not be seeking an extension to a March 31 restructuring deadline set by its banks.

Trading in the Aim-listed stock was suspended on Monday after its lenders rejected plans to save the business. It abandoned an attempt to sell itself in January, saying none of the proposals it had received represented a fair value for the business.

Plunging gold prices and increased competition left the group struggling with losses and overstretched finances.

Its shares, which were suspended at 6.65p, have lost around 97 per cent of their value in the last year as its woes deepened and investors were warned that any remaining options for the group would likely wipe out any remaining value of the stock.

Albemarle, led by former Bradford-based Provident Financial executive Chris Gillespie, said: “In the absence of any other available facilities from its lenders or elsewhere, the company will shortly be unable to meet its liabilities as they fall due.”