FIFTEEN workers lost their jobs yesterday when the Birthdays card shop at Middlebrook was closed — following a surprise decision by the Clintons chain.

The shop survived two previous rounds of Birthdays and Clintons branch closures in May and June. But Londonbased accountants Zolfo Cooper yesterday said a decision to close the Middlebrook shop was taken in the last few days. A spokesman said: “We have sent out previous lists of the branches affected by closures, but the decision to close the Middlebrook shop was taken over the weekend. We found out about it at the start of the week.

“Fifteen staff are losing their jobs, but we have no details of how many of them are part-time or fulltime.”

Staff at the Middlebrook shop declined to comment. The news came after two Clintons shops in Bolton survived the previous closures. The Market Place and Market Street branches have 10 full and part-time staff.

They are among 397 branches sold to a US greeting card company last month, saving 4,500 UK jobs. US-based Lakeshore Lending Limited, a subsidiary of card manufacturer American Greetings, bought the Clinton brands and assets.

Birthdays was originally based at Dumers Lane, in Bury, but bought by Essex-based Clintons in 2009 with the loss of 45 headquarter jobs as part of 750 redundancies across the UK. Clintons was the UK’s largest greetings cards chain with 784 branches and 8,000 employees, but it was placed in administration in May. A week later, Zolfo Cooper announced 350 stores would close with the loss of 3,000 shop and office jobs.