In the biggest retail catastrophe since the coronavirus pandemic forced lockdown across the country, Topshop and the various other brands registered under Philip Green’s Arcadia empire have been plunged into administration.

Failure to secure a £30mn loan means the retailers could be at risk of closing,leaving 13,000 staff unemployed.

Administrators from Deloitte have been brought in to resolve the economic mess caused by the debt owed, but the future of Arcadia is uncertain.

Topshop has been plunged into administration alongside all other Arcadia brands

The stores were set to reopen in England on 2 December, but what does this recent announcement mean for the high street retailer?

Will Topshop close?

Topshop is the flagship store of Arcadia Group, aimed at teens and young adults - arguably the group most at risk from unemployment in the current financial climate.

Stores will reopen on 2 December as expected, while Deloitte seeks to sell or liquidise the brand.

Topshop could be sold with or without the other lines attached to Sir Philp Green’s company, but will continue to trade as a member of Arcadia for the foreseeable future.

All pending orders, including those from Black Friday, will also be honoured, according to administrators.

There have been rumours of potential bids to buy Topshop - from Boohoo and Sport Direct - but nothing has been confirmed.

What impact does administration have?

When a company enters administration, it is given protection from creditors - such as store landlords - who may be threatening to begin legal action to recover outstanding debts.

This means Arcadia managers will be given time to negotiate a buying price from investors without the stress of managing their relationship with those they owe money to.

The appointed administrators - in this case, Deloitte - will then spend some time looking at the possibility of restructuring the company in order to allow it to trade profitably in the future - or whether it has to be liquidated.

Should it be liquidated, the company will cease to exist and any profitable assets will be sold in order to pay creditors as much of their owed money as possible,

What does this mean for shoppers?

While you can still purchase Topshop items as before, you might want to consider what you spend your money on.

The brand could sink in weeks or could be kept afloat for months, while Deloitte aims to strike a deal with bidders or collapse the company.

This could mean the shops will close without opportunity for you to return unwanted items, refund purchases or spend gift cards and vouchers.

Terms and conditions of gift cards mean a retailer can refuse to accept them at any point, which could be sooner rather than later for stores set to be liquidated.

You can claim the value of your gift card from the administrating company, if the stores close indefinitely.

If your gift card was gifted to you, the purchaser of the card will need to appeal for you and have a copy of the receipt.

Otherwise, if a giftcard is above the value of £100 and bought using a credit card then you can claim the money back through your lender.

What other brands belong to Arcadia?

Mr Green owns 444 stores in the UK and 22 overseas, employing 13,000 staff - 9,294 employees remain on furlough.

Aside from Topshop and Topman, labels trading under Arcadia include Dorothy Perkins, Burton, Evans, Miss Selfridge, Outfit and Wallis.

Despite several companies potentially buying over some of the brands, there could still be many left unemployed as the likes of online fashion retailers Boohoo and Asos will be unlikely to buy stores and only invest in merchandise - leaving the vast majority of store workers such as retail assistants out of a job.

Expressing their sadness at the failure of the brands, Ian Grabiner, the boss of Arcadia, said: "The impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, including the forced closure of our stores for prolonged periods, has severely impacted on trading across all of our brands.”

He added: "Throughout this immensely challenging time our priority has been to protect jobs and preserve the financial stability of the group, in the hope that we could ride out the pandemic and come out fighting on the other side.

"Ultimately, however, in the face of the most difficult trading conditions we have ever experienced, the obstacles we encountered were far too severe."

Is Topshop closing? If you can still shop in store, online and using gift cards as Arcadia goes into administration