Four administrations in the past week can only be bad news, but say more about the companies concerned than the market.

Oddbins went into administration today, following Officers Club, Sofas UK and Alworths in the past week. Put these collapses together with a series of poor trading updates, notably the Dixons profit warning, and the very weak supermarket growth figures, you could be forgiven for fearing the worst.

But while trading conditions are extremely difficult, they can’t be blamed for the collapse of those businesses which have hit the rocks in the past week. What we’ve seen since the start of the year is the failure of some of the weaker, sub-scale brands in UK retail - other victims have included British Bookshops, Bennetts, World of Sofas, Fenchurch, Henlys, Half Price Jewellers and Ollie & Nic.

If there’s one thing we’ve found in the past two years it’s that tough markets really polarise retail between the strongest businesses with dominant market positions and those smaller companies which lack a distinct point of difference. Being niche is great, but more than ever being successful as a niche business means offering a great experience, first-class service and a distinctive product offer.

Recreating failed models - as Alworths and World of Sofas did - is a recipe for failure, as is sitting right in the path of the supermarkets and the areas they’re expanding into, which Oddbins has found as the grocers have rolled out their convenience stores. It was probably no coincidence that last week’s rash of collapses coincided with rent quarter-day.

That’s not to say that conditions in the market aren’t horrible, because they are. But for the majority of those businesses which have hit trouble, all they have done is deliver the final blow.