Insolvency experts are on standby amid fears several high street retailers could collapse in January.

Following the quarterly rent call last week many chains are already struggling.

Footwear and clothing retailers have been particularly badly hit by the downturn in consumer confidence.

Stead & Simpson, the 350-store shoe chain, has been put up for sale by its owners, while Dolcis, a rival chain, is in talks to get emergency financing. Faith Shoes, owned by private equity house Bridgepoint, is thought to have struggled with difficult trading for months. Other stores on the watchlist for insolvency professionals include Mark One and Ethel Austin, the clothing retailers.

The Sunday Telegraph has learned that in a highly unusual step landlords have offered retailers discounts to their rent to prevent them from going bust. One insolvency executive said: "I've seen a couple of examples of this in the last week. This is the sort of thing that used to take three months to arrange, but it was getting done in three days. The landlords are just desperate to have somebody in the shops and are worried if they drain every drop from retailers they will be left without a tenant."

Insolvencies are expected to pick up through January. "In many cases the banks have paid the rents to take these shops through the sales," said another executive.

Meanwhile Irish retailer Bedeck, the Belfast-based homewares retailer, has bought six Ponden Mill stores after the retailer collapsed into administration earlier this month. Ernst & Young, the administrator, had already sold 33 of the 135 of Ponden Mill stores to Instore, the Poundstretcher owner.

The bad outlook comes as the sector gears up for its Christmas trading statement season. Next, the clothing retailer, will kick off on Thursday when it announces sales for the second half of its financial year up to Christmas Eve.

The chain has told the market that like-for-like sales will be down by between 1 and 3.5 per cent over the full year. Next, which launched its post-Christmas sale last week, is expected to say sales in the run-up were at the middle-to-lower end. "Sales leading up to Christmas were OK. It won't be a disaster," said an executive close to Next.

Majestic Wine, the wine and beer retailer, is also due to report this week. It is expected to have had a good Christmas.

However retail bosses are less concerned about Christmas sales than about consumer confidence. The chief executive of one household-name clothing retailer said Christmas was universally awful. However, he said of more concern is trading is likely to get even worse after the post-Christmas sales. "The question is, how quickly do things tail off?" he said.


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