Axe falls on nearly all Waverley's staff

Nearly 700 staff yesterday lost their jobs at Waverley, the wholesale distributor of drinks, after administrators failed to find a buyer for the business.

Deloitte, which was appointed as administrator on 2 October, said it is to "scale down efforts" to sell Derbyshire-based Waverley as a going concern and has made 685 employees redundant.

But the accountancy firm is to retain 97 employees to help "realise value from the assets of the business".