BUSINESS leaders and councillors in Tavistock are hoping a buyer can soon be found for the Focus DIY chain as more West Devon jobs hang in the balance this week.

Kingfisher plc, the owner of B&Q, has bought 31 of the 178 Focus stores after the company went into administration last week. but it is not yet known whether the Tavistock Focus branch is included in the sale.

Focus, situated on the Plymouth Road Industrial Estate, employs 23 people and is continuing to trade, like all the other branches across the country, while administrators Ernst and Young seek further offers for a going concern sale of the group's business and assets.

Chairman of Tavistock Chamber of Commerce Nigel Eadie said it was important that a transaction happened very swiftly.

'It is obviously a very difficult time for the people there who may lose their jobs, but hopefully we should know more in the next couple of weeks who is interested in that site,' he said.

'We would like to see a business of a similar nature to prevent people having to travel out of the local area for their goods, but if that kind of business is not viable then there is no long-term interest in it going there.

'There could well be a new opportunity for another business to come into town that offers specific services that are not adequately covered for at the moment.'

County councillor for Tavistock Debo Sellis said she hoped that whoever took over the Focus store would be able to take on existing staff.

'Any job losses in our community is really bad news,' she said. 'It is also important that any new retailer does not impact on town centre retailing.'

Plymouth millionaire Chris Dawson, who owns The Range chain of homeware stores, has also expressed an interest in purchasing the Focus chain and its stock.

Simon Allport, of Ernst and Young, said low consumer confidence and a weak housing transaction market placed considerable pressure on sales and margins for the Focus group.

He said:?'Despite management's actions to tightly control costs and restructure the operations, unfortunately it has not been possible for the business to continue to trade outside of insolvency.'

Mr Allport said the deal with Kingfisher plc represented 'an exceptional outcome' for creditors of Focus Group DIY.

'We will continue to trade all of the group's stores and will seek further offers for a going concern sale of the group's business and assets.'

'It is very much business as usual and we are grateful to all the group's loyal customers, suppliers and employees for their continued support.'

The Focus DIY Group employs a total of 3,920 staff and its headquarters are in Crewe. The company was founded in 1987 and has annual sales of around £450-million.

Three years ago the Tavistock branch of the company moved to new larger premises and created an extra 25 jobs, bringing the total workforce at the time to almost forty.

Kingfisher's group chief executive Ian Cheshire said: 'This is a good opportunity for us to accelerate our previously announced plans to expand B&Q into carefully targeted UK locations where we currently have no store representation.