Retail chain Xenos is cutting some 250 jobs and closing a handful of stores in an effort to improve its results, owner Blokker Holding confirmed to staff on Wednesday evening.

News of the meetings leaked out on Tuesday, leading to speculation that Xenos was in serious financial trouble. Over the past few weeks, the V&D department store chain and Macintosh retail group have gone bust because of declining high street sales.

Xenos has 250 stores, of which around 50 are in Germany. In total, around seven will shut, all in the Netherlands, the Volkskrant said.

Most of the job losses will be in the lowest store-based management levels. Each shop will keep its branch manager but team leadership functions will go.