A TOTAL of 26 jobs have been lost at the Crawshaws Meat Factory in Astley.

Administrators have announced 35 stores have been closed, as well as the Chaddock Lane distribution site, which have amounted to 354 redundancies.

Last month, the South Yorkshire-based meat retailer said it was attempting to raise equity to restore growth and profitability.

However, Crawshaws later announced that it did not have "sufficient cash resources" to carry out a restructuring.

But administrators EY say that 19 "profitable" stores would continue to operate.

Administrator Hunter Kelly said: "Despite the new management team's best efforts, it was not possible to raise additional investment to restructure the business by reducing the number of high street stores and expanding its successful factory shop format and in-store SPAR butchery offering.

"As a result the group would have run out of cash due to the loss making high street stores and therefore administration was necessary.

"It is with regret that 354 people have been made redundant.

"We hope to conclude a sale to preserve the remaining 261 jobs."