UK book retailer Borders has gone into administration and appointed restructuring firm MCR to handle the insolvency.

Borders has 45 stores across the UK and employs 1,150 staff. The company spun off from its US parent, Borders Group, in 2007, when it was acquired by Risk Capital, the private equity firm founded by Channel 4 chairman Luke Johnson, for £20 million.

The company was sold in July in a management buy-out backed by Valco Capital Partners, the private equity arm of Hilco, the distressed retail specialists. MCR announced that 36 employees at the London headquarters of the company would be made redundant.

Phillip Duffy, a partner at MCR, said: 'The appointment of MCR as administrators to the business is indicative of the weakening position of book retailers in the current market with competition on bestsellers from supermarkets and the growing strength of the digital and online markets in this sector.'

In the year to February 2008, Borders reported a net loss of £13.5 million.