Olan Mills staff tell of job shock

Staff at a Black Country office of Olan Mills photography studios have spoken of their shock after the company went into administration.

Call centre staff were in tears when told the chain, which has studios in Aldridge, Wolverhampton and Stourbridge, had closed and they would not be getting paid.

Staff based at the appointments and sales offices in Lichfield Street, Walsall, were left to console each other when their shift manager arrived with the shock announcement yesterday.

When office manager Paula Evans arrived to announce the bad news her colleagues sobbed and hugged each other.

Mrs Evans, aged 38, said she was contacted by her boss after work two nights ago for a telephone conference and was told the company had quit trading.

She said: "It's absolutely terrible. From our point of view it's really disappointing because we were still selling this week and up until the day before we were taking people's debit and credit card details.

"We were the ones talking to the customers and doing our best to gain people's trust.

"I was told in a two minute conversation we were no longer trading and we would get no payment. No wages, no holiday pay.

"I personally came in to the office to tell my staff of 10 what had happened, to give them their Christmas presents and say goodbye.

"Some of them are single moms and raising families alone. It's awful and soul destroying. I should have seen it coming because normally at this time of the year we would have doubled the staff to cope with Christmas demand."

Photographer Olan Mills set up the business in Alabama in 1932 with his wife. The firm expanded to the UK in 1981 with studios at Worcester Street in Wolverhampton, at Anchor Parade in Aldridge and the Crown Centre in Stourbridge.

The headquarters is based in Wellingborough, Northamptonshire.

By Deborah Stewart