FOUR jobs have been lost following the closure of a Greenock town centre shop.

Albemarle Bond — a pawnbrokers in West Blackhall Street — closed on Tuesday.

Passers-by spotted a notice in the shop window which stated that the branch would ‘no longer be open for business’ with customers advised to contact another branch in Argyll Street in Glasgow with any queries.

Bosses had remained hopeful that jobs could be saved after the company was plunged into administration last month.

But it was announced yesterday that the Greenock store, which was said to be ‘underperforming’, was not one of 128 branches which were taken over by Promethean Investments — led by former Bank of Scotland boss Sir Peter Burt.

Mike Jervis, lead administrator at accountants PwC, said he sympathised with all the staff who had lost their livelihoods.

Mr Jervis said: “The group and PwC are doing all that they can to support employees through this difficult time and will work with government agencies in order to support anyone affected by potential redundancies.” The company had expanded its branch portfolio up to early last year and analysts say it ended up with too many underperforming outlets.

The Telegraph understands that the buyer had the choice to go for the stores which they believed to be most profitable and the Greenock store was not part of that selection.

The company, which has another 14 branches in Scotland, provides a wide range of services including pawnbroking, gold buying, cheque cashing and unsecured lending as well as foreign exchange services and it acts as a jewellery retailer too.