UNCERTAINTY hangs over jobs at Hereford's Index catalogue store as its owner Littlewoods has announced the partial sale and closure of the chain.
The store, in the city's High Street, is located within Littlewoods and employs between five and 15 people.
Littlewoods said, this morning, that 33 of its 66 stand-alone stores were being bought by Argos for £44m, which in turn is owned by Great Universal Stores.
GUS also owns the former Kays company in Worcester, now known as Shop Direct.
The remaining Index stores will be sold and closed over a period of six months.
It is proposed the 93 Index stores within the Littlewoods stores will also close, with the space being retained by Littlewoods, while Argos acquires the brand and website.
Chairman David Simons said the decision had been made as Index has made a loss in nearly every year of its 20-year history, accumulating losses of more than £100m.
Index has 4,000 employees nationwide, of which around 800 will be transferred to Argos.
The firm's employees were due to be consulted this morning.
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