Worried MFI staff in dark over jobs

STAFF at the MFI furniture store in Green Street, Oldham, are in the dark about their job prospects.

As many as 100 stores at retail chain MFI could close despite a management buy–out agreed at the weekend.

Chief executive Gary Favell, who is leading the buy–out, is understood to have asked landlords to agree to a three-month rent holiday — or see the stores go into administration.

In a letter seen by a national newspaper, he warned landlords that the rent holiday, which would last until Christmas Eve, is “the only viable option for MFI to retain an ongoing business.” A company spokesman declined to comment .