Troubled sandwich chain Benjys closed all 46 of its branches yesterday as it entered administration for the second time since July last year.

A note displayed at a closed Victoria branch stated “The company has gone into administration and this store is closed with immediate effect. We apologise to the disruption to customers and thank them for their loyal custom.”

Hamilton Bradshaw, the private equity firm that bought Benjys just seven months ago, appointed KPMG as the administrators on Monday night, after attempts to find a buyer failed over the weekend.

Like other high street retailers the company blamed a difficult trading period. Administrator Myles Halley said “The business has encountered difficulties as it has been making trading losses in the highly competitive food retail sector.”

The aim is to sell the business as a going concern, but fears of job losses were confirmed by Mr Halley’s statement that “while the administrators will continue to seek offers from interested parties, unfortunately there will be around 400 redundancies.” 

It has also been reported that assets were seized at 17 stores last week, by bailiffs acting for the accountancy firm Deliotte.