SEVENTEEN people in Kent have lost their jobs with the closure of a music retailer.

The Maidstone branch of Music Zone was one of 31 shops to shut after the Northern-based company went into administration.

Staff at the High Street store were told of the decision on Monday and the outlet was closed immediately.

The Maidstone staff are among a total of 325 made redundant by Deloitte, administrators of Music Zone.

A Deloitte spokesman said: "After assessing the viability of the business, we had to take the difficult decision of closing those stores that were not contributing as strongly to the business."

Music Zone was placed into administration on January 3 after months of difficult trading. The business had faced intense competition from supermarkets, and suffered from the increase in Internet downloads and declining sales of CDs and DVDs.

Turnover was forecast to be £115m in the current financial year.

A spokesperson for Music Zone said then: "There is a growing number of high street retailers like Music Zone experiencing challenging trading conditions. Pre-Christmas spending was also poorer than expected.

"The decision by our bankers to recover debts and withdraw credit facilities without notice and with immediate effect left us and our private equity backers with no real alternative other than to appoint administrators."

Not all Music Zone stores are closing. Seventy-two, which employ 775 staff, may be sold as a going concern. A number of possible buyers have expressed interest.

Music Zone bought the Maidstone store and 40 others from the collapsed MVC chain as part of a push into the south.

At the time, administrators Kroll blamed tough competition from supermarkets and online purchasing for MVC’s difficulties, the same problems that eventually killed off Music Zone.