Administrators of collapsed department store group Allders have made 19 staff redundant in Sussex.

Kroll, which took over the company last month, announced 461 job losses at stores throughout the UK and a further 209 at Allders'

headquarters in Croydon.

The administrators said the cuts, which are spread across most of the company's 45 stores, were necessary to remove overstaffing.

A spokesman for Kroll said: "It was necessary to reduce the level of employment to meet the needs of each individual store."

Redundancies include six out of the 63 staff at the Westhampnett Road branch in Chichester and 12 out of the 49 employees at the Horsham Retail Park branch in Blackhorse Way but none of the 29 staff at the Kingsgate Development branch in Queensway, Crawley.

The redundancies took immediate effect yesterday.

Kroll said talks over the possible sale of 34 stores were at an advanced stage and all 45 stores remained open.

The 143-year-old business went into administration after falling victim to tough trading conditions and the failure of its owners to find a buyer.

The administrators had hoped to sell Allders as a going concern as this would have helped safeguard jobs.

But Kroll said the redundancies were necessary after it became clear there was no bid for the entire group.

It also said it had agreed to make ongoing contributions of £58,000 a month to the company's pension scheme until at least June.

Kroll said sale talks were progressing well and it hoped to finalise deals that would see the remaining staff transferred to the new owners.

It was speculated at the weekend that retailers Debenhams, BHS and Primark were in advanced talks to buy more than 25 of the stores.