Tie Rack to vanish from high street: Repeated losses means stores will close by the end of the year Some 44 stores will disappear by end of the year following £6.9m losses Firm's Italian owner Fingen Group will retain Tie Rack online brand Train station and airport regular founded in 1981 by Roy Bishko Explosion of City jobs saw growth of company up to 450 stores at peak By Rob Davies and Kieran Corcoran Tie Rack is pulling out of Britain after its Italian owners decided to give up on the chain in the face of repeated losses, putting 200 jobs at risk. A closing-down sale is expected to begin on Wednesday, with some 44 stores due to disappear by the end of the year. Tie Rack's miniature stores have become a familiar fixture at train stations and airports since it was founded in 1981 by heel bar owner Roy Bishko. Glory days: An airport branch of Tie Rack is seen in 1999, when the store was booming Vanish: Tie Rack is to close 44 stores on the high street following repeated losses. It will remain online The explosion of office-based jobs in the City of London financial district helped it expand rapidly, reaching a peak of 450 stores during 1998. But competition from internet retailers, coupled with high costs, has hit sales hard, while fashions have changed. Optional? Ties are no longer essential business attire - with David Cameron and Obama going without at the G8 conference Ties, once de rigeur at business meetings, have become regarded as optional accessories, with even the Prime Minister appearing in open-necked shirts for some speeches and functions. The latest accounts for the business show that it made a loss of £6.9million last year, after falling £7.4million into the red the previous year. Mounting losses are understood to have convinced the firm's Italian owner, the Fingen Group, to leave Britain altogether, retaining only the Tie Rack online brand. Discussions are understood to be ongoing about the possibility of Tie Rack maintaining some stores at airports. But the last of its UK shops is expected to close by the end of the year, while accountancy firm Grant Thornton is thought to be seeking a buyer for the overseas branch network. The firm's Rolling Luggage subsidiary will not be affected. A spokesman said: 'Following a period of prolonged decline in Tie Rack's fortunes, it is with regret that we announce this closing down sale. Management are working with staff to provide support during this difficult time. While in recent years Tie Rack may have slumped to just another outlet before Duty Free, the company had an illustrious history that chimes with the boom years of the 1980s, saw the company dabble with royalty, and even take part in efforts to end the Cold War. But the retailer, which once boasted 450 outlets nationwide, had a humble beginning. According to Tie Rack's official history, the idea for a dedicated tie shop was born because its founder was fed up with the queue at Harrods. Roy Bishko, the South African who ran the company for most of its life, had long been a tie enthusiast, but said that quality silk versions were only affordable once a year when the Harrods sale rolled around. The rush for cheap ties, which he compared to 'being caught in a swarm of locusts', convinced him there was a market for 'silk ties at prices that would not make people cry'. Boom times: Shoppers queue outside Tie Rack on Boxing Day 2001 Mr Bishko, who owned a shoe-servicing shop on Oxford Street, started selling ties as well, put on display draped over shoe racks. They sold out on the first day, and later that year the shop was transformed into the original Tie Rack. A year later, the first store opened in a train station at Waterloo, and in 1984 a Tie Rack outlet opened at Glasgow Airport, at a time when airports were nationalised and contained very few shops. Business boomed for years, cropping up in stations airports and high streets all over the country. In 1987 Mr Bishko decided to float the business on the stock market, to fund even more rapid expansion. When in the shares hit the market in June 1987, there was £1billion worth of applications for just £12.5million in shares. The huge level of interest - 84 buyers for every single share - was a record at the time. Royal attention: Princess Diana opened a Tie Rack store in 1987 By the end of the year, the retailer had even caught the attention of the Royal Family. When Princess Diana was invited to open the St Anne's shopping centre in Harrow, north-west London, she took a moment to cut the ribbon of a new Tie Rack, commenting: 'I always like these shops. They have such smashing, cheerful colours. She even gained a souvenir from the trip in the form of a pair of silk blue boxer shorts that shop staff noticed caught her eye. Though there is nothing to suggest Prince Charles ever donned that particular Tie Rack product, he made a point of complimenting their ties at a store opening in 1994 at the Louvre in Paris. Mr Bishko met the Prince at the store - punningly called The Art of Ties - and recalled him saying: 'You have an awfully large selection of ties here. Do you know, I would like to buy my ties myself but, of course, I can't.' However, the retailer's greatest contribution to events on the world stage undoubtedly came in the dying days of the Cold War, when US President George Bush senior wore a symbolic Tie Rack number as he ended the long-running conflict between East and West. President Bush wore the historic 'Glasnost' tie on one of the days of the Malta Summit in 1989, which many consider the official end of hostilities between the United States and the Soviet Union. The design was launched a year earlier and sent to President Bush, his predecessor Ronald Reagen, and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev, as well as a host of other prominent figures. The Glasnost tie, named after the Russian policy of increased openness to the West, featured the US and Soviet flags next to one another, and also sported a white dove, to symbolise peace. As part of its drive for peace - and publicity - when Tie Rack sent out its Glasnost ties to celebrities, it asked them to send one of theirs in return. These were then auctioned off for charity, raising more than £100,000 after contributions from Bob Hope, Paul McCartney, Mick Jagger, Elton John, as well as two scarves from Margaret Thatcher. The brand peaked in the later 1990s, when it had more than 400 stores worldwide, but began to fall victim to changing styles and increased competition. In 1999, the group went private as Italian design house Frangi Designs bought up 70 per cent of the company's shares, while the other 30 per cent were retained by Mr Bishko and the company directors. Frangi were in turn bought up to become part of Italian conglomerate The Fingen Group, which owns Tie Rack today. By 2013 the once-ubiquitous chain had dwindled to just 44 shops, and today the news came that all but the 9 airport stores will definitely close, while even the remaining outlets hang in the balance.