The Co-op department store in Brighton is not included in the deal because it is owned by a separate society.

The sale will raise around £150 million and will allow the society to focus on its food retailing and funerals divisions.

It will close its out-of-town Homeworld home furnishing stores in Norwich and Hull and the remaining 10 Homeworld outfits will be sold to Kingfisher, the Woolworths and B&Q group, for £80 million.

Its 40 Living department stores, including Crawley, will be sold to Scottish housing and property company Miller Group for £69 million.

A spokeswoman for the CRS said: "We are working to do anything we can to protect our employees."

Kingfisher is planning to turn two into B&Q warehouses and four will be developed into general large retail units, possibly to be sold off.

Ten of the stores Miller is buying are to be sold on to Irish retail fashion group Primark, while the rest will be developed either as retail units or for other uses.

CRS's non-food operations have been suffering badly in the last three years amid tough market conditions despite a number of major investment programmes.

Peter Rowbotham, who had been chairman of CRS over the last six years, resigned at the weekend.

Chief executive Andy Meehan, who joined the group from Storehouse last autumn, said Mr Rowbotham had had a "difficult task on his hands" as the society struggled to compete with rivals in recent years.

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