The receivers of the troubled children's clothing retailer Pumpkin Patch have started to wield the axe.
Seven of the 160 Pumpkin Patch stores across New Zealand and Australia are expected to close in the next week. Photo: Flickr / Jason Hutchens
They are closing seven stores - three in Auckland, and one each in Hamilton, Whanganui, Kapiti and Christchurch.
They will be closed over the next week and 57 jobs will be lost.
KordaMentha partner Brendon Gibson said the shops were not financially viable and needed to be closed to help the survival chances of the rest of the group.
The affected staff would get redundancy of up to $22,000 each.
The company was placed into receivership on Wednesday after it could not come up with a rescue plan to turn around struggling sales, lack of cash and a mountain of debt.
It has been estimated to owe as much as $80 million.
Pumpkin Patch has 160 shops in New Zealand and Australia, with about 1600 staff.
Mr Gibson said the receivers were still looking at the Australian operations, and no closures have been made there so far.