Richard Siddle, comment November

On the face of it First Quench going into administration is the "catastrophe" that many in the sector had feared, but never thought would actually happen. It is, though, too early to say how damaging the impact from the fall out could ultimately be. 

We know at least 373 plus stores are going to close and 1,738 people are going to lose their jobs, with the rest of the company's stores and staff in limbo until potential buyers can be found - or not. 

Putting aside the scale of First Quench's failure this has been a calamity waiting to happen. The company had even gone as far as predicting its own demise, so we should not really be surprised that the company has now gone under. The difficulty now is who is best placed to pick up the pieces. Not only is the First Quench estate clearly in a state, its portfolio of stores are a total mismatch of different sized fascias making a handover to any potential buyers even more troublesome. The fact the administrators are looking for a fast sale makes it an even more difficult situation.

But it is not necessarily all doom and gloom. First Quench was clearly not good enough to run a retail business of this size. It may well now be that the stores are all now broken up and handed over to retailers better placed and more capable of making them work. Whether that is the whole estate is highly unlikely, but there are potentially lots of businesses of different sizes and scale capable of stepping in.

First Quench stores, for example, will be particularly attractive to the symbol group sector and the likes of Costcutter, Spar and Nisa-Today's. Oddbins is also well placed to cherry pick the ones it wants, but don't expect it to be a major mover.

Oddbins' Simon Baile even sees opportunities here for the independent sector to step in and pick up key competitive sites. It could also see the emergence of new players to the sector and bring some much needed variety and innovation to the high street. The wider retail sector could still make First Quench's stores work. The challenge will be to be keep them as off-licenses

• Harpers Says...