Music and entertainment retailer Zavvi will immediately close 22 stores and cut 178 jobs, the collapsed company's administrators said today.

Administrators at Ernst & Young, appointed to run the company after it filed for bankruptcy protection on Dec. 24, said they hoped to keep the company alive but it was "no longer possible to support continued trading across all of the Zavvi stores."

They said deep discounts would be offered on the company's stock at its remaining 92 stores.

In the meantime, Ernst & Young said it had many expressions of interest in Zavvi's operations, but suggested a solid offer might be difficult in Britain's dire economic climate.

Zavvi - created by a management buyout of the Virgin Megastores just over a year ago - was Britain's largest independent entertainment retailer, with some 2,400 permanent staff.

The company was dealt a blow by the November collapse of retailing stalwart Woolworths and Entertainment UK Ltd. (EUK), Woolworths' wholesale supplier of music, DVDs and games. EUK also supplied Zavvi, and its demise left the company unable to fulfill customer orders.