Comet's last remaining stores will trade for the final time on Tuesday as the curtain comes down on another famous high street name.
The closure of the final group of 49 stores from the former 236-strong estate comes seven weeks after Deloitte was appointed as administrator.
The collapse of the firm, which was founded in Hull in 1933 and employed around 6,600 people, marks one of the biggest high street casualties since the demise of Woolworths in 2008.
Deloitte has so far failed to find a buyer for the company or any of its shops and plans for it to present a report outlining the position of creditors in the collapse were being delayed today.
The report is likely to indicate that insufficient funds have been raised from the winding down of the chain to pay up to £24 million in redundancy payments to 6,600 staff. This means the Government will probably have to step in and ensure workers receive their payments.
The statement will also disclose that unsecured creditors - including HM Revenue & Customs, which is owed £26.1 million - will receive nothing.
Secured creditors, such as the backers of Comet's parent company Hailey Acquisitions, are expected to get payments of just under £50 million. However, this is a shortfall of £95 million on the amount owed at the time of the collapse.
The scale of the problems at Comet will also be highlighted in the report, with the chain reportedly racking up losses of £95 million in the year to April, followed by a further £31 million in the subsequent five months as credit insurers lost confidence and withdrew support for the business.
Hailey was the investment vehicle put together by Henry Jackson of OpCapita, who raised the funding from unnamed investors for Comet's takeover from French retail group Darty.
Comet was hit by weak high street trading conditions, competition from online rivals and being unable to secure the trade credit insurance needed to safeguard suppliers. In particular, it was knocked by the lack of first-time home-buyers, who had been key customers for Comet.
