SHUTTERS DOWN
Bargain fashion chain launches closing down sales as it plans to shut three shops for good
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A BARGAIN fashion chain has launched a string of closing down sales as it plans to shutter three shops for good.
Select Fashion will close the sites across the UK by the end of the month.
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The locations shutting include Kidderminster, Crewe and Thornaby and followed several other closures last year.
It comes after the British fashion brand - owned by Turkish entrepreneur Cafer Mahiroğlu - fell into administration in 2019.
At the time, the retailer blamed tough conditions on the high street and was later bought out of administration by Genus UK Limited.
Recent filings on Companies House - the UK's register of businesses - show Select Fashion entered into a Company Voluntary Arrangement (CVA) last summer.
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A CVA is a way of restructuring that means a business can continue trading by negotiating its debts, such as cutting rent costs with landlords.
It is a common way for struggling businesses to try and stay afloat, with chains such as Caffe Nero and Body Shop having previously entered into one.
Select is now closing three locations across the UK, all understood to be shutting down before the end of January.
Almost identical statements were posted by the relevant shopping centres housing the Select stores in Kidderminster and Thornaby, telling customers to use any credit vouchers before they close.
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In Crewe, local news out Crewe Nub News shared an image of the soon-to-be-boarded-up store and posters advertising a closing down sale.
The Sun has approached Select Fashion for comment.
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These reports follow a barrage of closures made by the bargain fashion store last year.
Bosses decided to call time on its Ipswich, Kent, and Cwmbran branches last year.
Select also closed its branch in the Erith Riverside Shopping Centre in London.
The bargain retailer, which has been on the high street for nearly four decades, has around 105 stores still up and running.
OTHER SHOP CLOSURES
Plenty of other retailers are closing stores across the high street as households lean more towards online shopping and amid high business rates.
Soaring inflation in recent years has also dented shoppers' pockets.
The Centre for Retail Research's latest analysis suggests 13,479 stores, the equivalent of 37 each day, shut for good in 2024.
Of those, 11,341 were independent shops while 2,138 were shut by larger retailers.
The data also showed over half the stores that closed last year were shut due to the store or retailer going through insolvency proceedings.
This is when formal measures are taken to deal with tackling a business's debt.
Retailers are shutting stores in 2025 too.
The Body Shop is pulling down the shutters on five branches today in Exeter, Plymouth, Horsham, Norwich and Sheffield.
Three other branches have already closed in Cambridge and Hove.
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All in all, the Centre for Retail Research estimates more stores will close this year than last.
It predicts around 17,350 sites to close for good, made up of around 14,660 independent shops.
RETAIL PAIN IN 2025
The British Retail Consortium has predicted that the Treasury's hike to employer NICs will cost the retail sector £2.3billion.
Research by the British Chambers of Commerce shows that more than half of companies plan to raise prices by early April.
A survey of more than 4,800 firms found that 55% expect prices to increase in the next three months, up from 39% in a similar poll conducted in the latter half of 2024.
Three-quarters of companies cited the cost of employing people as their primary financial pressure.
The Centre for Retail Research (CRR) has also warned that around 17,350 retail sites are expected to shut down this year.
It comes on the back of a tough 2024 when 13,000 shops closed their doors for good, already a 28% increase on the previous year.
Professor Joshua Bamfield, director of the CRR said: "The results for 2024 show that although the outcomes for store closures overall were not as poor as in either 2020 or 2022, they are still disconcerting, with worse set to come in 2025."
Professor Bamfield has also warned of a bleak outlook for 2025, predicting that as many as 202,000 jobs could be lost in the sector.
"By increasing both the costs of running stores and the costs on each consumer's household it is highly likely that we will see retail job losses eclipse the height of the pandemic in 2020."
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