48 employees made redundant and all five stores closed as administrators urgently seek a buyer for the remaining online business.
The Manchester-based business called in administrators RSM Tenon on Friday, August 13 - just 24 hours after it was bought by The Hut Group for £600,000.

The Hut Group acquired Confetti and sister business, gadget and gift website iwantoneofthose.com, from parent company Findel PLC. However, according to a report in the Telegraph, the new owners had no interest in the wedding and gift business, which comprises leading website www.confetti.co.uk and five retail outlets based in Glasgow, Leeds, London, Birmingham and Reading.

RSM Tenon, who announced an "urgent search for a buyer", explained that it "moved quickly to close the five stores in order to focus on the established online business". 48 of Confetti's 94 employees have also been made redundant.

The website receives nearly 8m hits a month and recently won Best Wedding Website at the BT Online Excellence Awards.

Joint administrator Kenny Craig, RSM Tenon Glasgow director said: "Confetti is a very high profile market leading online brand and enjoys a large customer base. The business has great potential for further development and the administration presents an outstanding opportunity for a retail business or entrepreneur to acquire an immediate presence in the wedding and celebrations market. We would urge interested parties to make contact in the next day or two to ensure they have a chance to bid for the business."

Interested parties should contact RSM's recovery team on 0131 221 8820 before the closing date of 5pm Monday, August 31.

The news comes a year after wedding gift list service Wrapit collapsed owing more than £7m. Of this, £4m was owed by the company for around 72,000 undelivered wedding gifts.

This month former Wrapit md Peter Gelardi and retail director Pepita Diamand were each disqualified from acting as company directors for a combined total of 15 years, after it was revealed that they continued to trade even when the business was insolvent.

An RSM spokesperson assured customers that the company aims to cover all 1,100 outstanding orders - most of which have an average value of around £45.