LITTLE-KNOWN Liverpool retail business Lewis's Home Retail has come to the rescue of the city’s flagship TJ Hughes store.

The London Road site, home of the 99-year-old discount retail chain, will be sold to Lewis’s Home Retail Ltd, part of the Speke-based Benross Group.

Staff at London Road, and three other TJ’s stores in Eastbourne, Glasgow and Sheffield, will transfer to Lewis’s once the deal is complete, saving a total of more than 400 jobs.

Meanwhile administrator Ernst & Young will continue to try and find a buyer for as many of the remaining 52 TJ’s stores around the country, including those in Birkenhead, Bootle, Chester, Ellesmere Port, St Helens, Warrington and Widnes.

Tom Jack and Simon Allport, joint administrators with Ernst & Young, revealed they had entered into an agreement to sell the four stores and their assets yesterday afternoon.

They said on completion of the transaction “all employees in these stores will transfer to Lewis’s Home Retail Limited”.

No value has been revealed for the transaction.

Mr Jack said: “We are delighted to have exchanged contracts on this deal, which saves 442 jobs and continues the TJ Hughes legacy in Liverpool, as well as in other locations across the UK.”

John Gorle, national officer for the Usdaw union said: “This looks like great news for everyone employed at the four stores being sold and I am sure the saving of TJ’s flagship store will be particularly welcome news in Liverpool.

"The administrators will be giving us more detail about the sale on Tuesday and I will be seeking a meeting with Lewis’s Home Retail at the earliest opportunity.