Kwik Save is to go into administration at midday with the loss of 1,100 jobs and 90 stores after a High Court judge approved a partial rescue plan. The Times. Daily Telegraph. The Independent. Financial Times. The Guardian

The remaining 56 supermarkets will be rebranded FreshXpress and trade in a new company backed by the Irish entrepreneur Brendan Murtagh, founder of Kingspan, the specialist UK-listed construction company. He backed a previous attempt to rescue Kwik Save.

KPMG, which has been advising the company on a restructuring, is to be appointed administrator.

In May Kwik Save announced the closure of 81 of its 273 stores.

Kwik Save has struggled since it was sold to private investors in February last year by Somerfield, the store group that was taken private by Barclays Capital, Apax and Robert Tchenguiz in 2005. In May it announced the closure of 81 of its 273 stores and it is thought that some of the stores closed by the administrator could revert to Somerfield.

It is understood that Somerfield’s owners are exposed to lease liabilities of up to £10m related to Kwik Save .