The company, who owns 40% of Morgan, a UK private equity group Apax Partners, has 575 stores in 57 countries, including the UK where it went bust earlier this year. It employs 1,000 people, including 750 in France.

Established in 1968, the chain rose to the top in the 1990s with the help of publicity campaigns featuring Carla Bruni, the Italian singer who is now the wife of French president Nicolas Sarkozy. It had been looking for a buyer since the start of 2008. The company, which expects to report a 9% decline in 2008 sales, said it still hoped to be able to sell the business.

This was confirmed by a spokesman who told French news agency AFP that it had gone under for three reasons: the financial crisis, with an expected drop in business of 8% in 2009, problems in the UK and the difficulty of finding a new owner. The company has an estimated €30m (£29.24m) of debt and annual turnover of €140m (£137m).

Morgan's move into administration came after the same happened to UK retailers Woolworths, Zavvi, Whittard and The Officer's Club.

The final Woolworths stores are now due to close on 5 January after administrator Deloitte failed to find a buyer for the whole company.

Music and games retailer Zavvi went into administration on Christmas Eve.

Tea and coffee specialist Whittard went into administration before Christmas due to "trading difficulties", but it was quickly bought for an undisclosed sum by Epic private equity partners.

Now, Morgan has filed for bankruptcy after falling victim to the crisis gripping retailers. A spokesman for Morgan said: "The company is suffering from the financial crisis like everybody else. There are several interested takers and the fact that the group is going into administration could attract even more." Morgan filed for bankruptcy a day after USC, the 58-store fashion chain, fell into administration, another retailing victim of the credit crunch. In a "pre-pack" deal, USC's administrator immediately sold up to 43 of the stores back to a subsidiary of Sir Tom Hunter's West Coast Capital, which owns USC. The administrator plans to wind down the rest of the business, with the loss of up to 300 jobs.

The French company now hopes that administration will enable it to spread repayment of its debt over 10 years – and find a new owner.