RIVER Island has confirmed the full list of 33 stores that will shut following a major restructure.
The fashion retailer has revealed branches across the UK will close including in Beckton, Wrexham and Hereford.
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Other shops will shut in Didcot, Sutton Coldfield and Gloucester. This is the full list of 33 stores that will shut:
- Beckton
- Bangor Bloomfield
- Wrexham
- Edinburgh Princes Street
- Hereford
- Surrey Quays
- Didcot
- Sutton Coldfield
- Aylesbury
- Burton-Upon-Trent
- Northwich
- Taunton
- Workington
- Falkirk
- Cumbernauld
- Kirkcaldy
- Gloucester
- Hartlepool
- Brighton
- Lisburn
- Norwich
- Oxford
- Poole
- Kilmarnock
- Hanley
- Barnstaple
- Grimsby
- Leeds Birstall Park
- Rochdale
- Great Yarmouth
- St Helens
- Stockton On Tees
- Perth
The 33 shops earmarked for closure will stay open until January 2026 to make the most of peak trading.
The closures come as River Island carries out a major restructuring of its store estate.
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The future of a further 70 stores is at risk and dependant on agreements being reached with landlords to slash rent payments.
The retailer is set to split its store estate into seven categories of closures and rent reductions.
Only nine stores are planned to keep paying full rent, while 38 could see rent reductions of up to 75% for three years.
Meanwhile, 24 stores could move to a zero-rent model.
River Island currently employs around 5,500 workers across the UK, but has not said how many jobs are at risk due to the closures.
The retailer drafted in advisers from PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) just weeks ago to come up with money-saving solutions.
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The move came off the back of poor financial results.
Accounts for River Island Clothing Co for the year ending December 30, 2023, showed the firm made a £33.2million pre-tax loss.
Then the turnover during the following 12 months fell by more than 19% to £578.1million.
In a statement issued last week, Ben Lewis, chief executive officer, said: “River Island is a much-loved retailer, with a decades-long history on the British high street.
“However, the well-documented migration of shoppers from the high street to online has left the business with a large portfolio of stores that is no longer aligned to our customers’ needs.
“The sharp rise in the cost of doing business over the last few years has only added to the financial burden.”
RETAIL SECTOR STRUGGLES
The retail sector has struggled in recent years due to the onset of online shopping and lockdowns during the coronavirus pandemic.
Last week, the owners of Poundland confirmed they would shut 68 stores in a major shake-up, with 82 more at risk.
Both Hobbycraft and The Original Factory Shop are also shutting branches as part of restructuring efforts.
Higher inflation since 2022 has also hit shoppers’ budgets while businesses have struggled with higher wage, tax and energy costs.
The Centre for Retail Research has described the sector as going through a “permacrisis” since the 2008 financial crash.
Figures from the Centre also show 34 retail companies operating multiple stores stopped trading in 2024, leading to the closure of 7,537 shops.
RETAIL PAIN IN 2025
The British Retail Consortium predicted that the Treasury’s hike to employer NICs will cost the retail sector £2.3billion.
Research by the British Chambers of Commerce showed that more than half of companies planned to raise prices by early April.
A survey of more than 4,800 firms also 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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