A HALESOWEN town centre card shop has reopened - giving five staff their jobs back.

A Write Card had been closed for around five weeks after the company went into liquidation on January 7 and closed all of its 15 stores including those in Halesowen, Bromsgrove and Walsall.

It reopened its Halesowen branch, which is in the Cornbow Centre, last week and was able to give all five staff who had been laid off their jobs back.

The shop has been open for 18 years at the site.

A Write Card's managing director John Paul Banbury said: "Our Halesowen store has always been popular with our customers - the reaction since it reopened has been great."

The Walsall-based chain has also reopened its stores in Bromsgrove, Walsall and Burton upon Trent and is "in talks with landlords of other sites."

It closed all 15 branches with the loss of 120 jobs in January due to difficult trading conditions.

It was previously operated by a company called Card Party Limited - the owners have since set up a new company called A Write Card Ltd.

Mr Banbury said: "We had 15 branches, but unfortunately we had to take a decision to go into liquidation at the beginning of January.

"It was a tough decision because this has been a family run business for 35 years.

"But we have more or less paid all our liabilities and suppliers, hopefully we will come out strong.

"Unfortunately everyone lost their jobs, but as we are getting the shops back we are offering some of the people their jobs back.

"We have so far opened four shops out of the 15 resulting in 20 workers coming back.

"Some of them had already found jobs elsewhere and chose to hand in their notices and return to us, which was nice to see.

"We have employed them on the same terms and contracts.

"You read abut the general trends of the high street which is being affected by out of town shopping centres which is not driving people into town centres.

"The main issue is the decline in footfall." Mr Banbury added.

The chain is listed by Companies House as operating from Greetings House, in Bescot Crescent, Bescot. There is also a warehouse which is run as a separate business.

There were also other branches in Tamworth, Coventry, Nuneaton, Derby, Gloucester, Redditch, Worcester and Cheltenham.