British department stores group BHS is to be wound down after administrators failed to find a buyer for the 88-year-old chain, threatening more than 10,000 jobs, advisers Duff & Phelps said.

All of BHS's 163 stores will hold closing-down sales over coming weeks and 8,000 staff are likely to be laid off, it said. Another 3,000 workers not directly employed by BHS are at risk.

"Despite the considerable efforts of the administrators and BHS senior management it has not been possible to agree a sale of the business," said administrators Philip Duffy and Benjamin Wiles.

"Although multiple offers were received, none were able to complete a deal due to the working capital required to secure the future of the company," the administrators added.

BHS was placed into administration, a form of creditor protection, by owner Retail Acquisitions in April.

The chain, which once targeted a similar mid-market customer as bigger rival Mark & Spencer, failed to keep pace with changing shopping habits, including the rise of cheaper, more fashionable stores like Primark and online competition.

"The British high street is changing and in these turbulent times for retailers, BHS has fallen as another victim of the seismic shifts we are seeing," Duffy said after BHS became the latest British retail casualty of a tough market which already this week claimed tailoring chain Austin Reed.

Up to 10 bidders were reported to have been interested in rescuing the stores, including Mike Ashley, owner of Sports Direct , who had said he was in talks before administrators were called in.

The failure to find a buyer will increase the focus on its previous owner, billionaire retail mogul Philip Green, who sold the chain to a group of little-known investors led by a previous bankrupt called Dominic Chappell for one pound in March 2015.