Major high street retailers including Dobbies, New Look and Homebase are set to close dozens of stores before the end of February. Homebase has confirmed 33 closures for February, after the DIY chain collapsed into administration in November 2024. It was later announced that retail group CDS, owner of The Range, had agreed a deal to snap up around 70 stores. Some stores were also taken over by Sainsbury's and B&Q, but others will sadly close for good.
Meanwhile, gardening chain Dobbies has announced it will close another shop in February, with its Aylesbury site set to shut for food. Its branch in Northampton will follow on March 2. It comes after Dobbies in Leicester closed on February 14. By the start on next month, Dobbies will have closed 24 branches since last October. Other key closures to be aware of, include WHSmith axing four stores on February 15, New Look shutting one branch on February 22 and Hollister pulling down the shutters to one store on February 28. You can find a full list of all the closures coming up in February below.
We recently reported on how the UK high street is changing, after 13,479 retail stores closed in the UK in 2024 - up 28% increase from 2023, according to The Centre for Retail Research. This is equivalent to about 37 stores closing each day. And more than 17,000 stores are set to close this year as retailers face higher costs from this April, in the form of higher employer National Insurance contributions and a rise in minimum wage.
The rate of National Insurance paid by firms will rise from 13.8% to 15% from April 2025. The earnings threshold for when employers start paying National Insurance will also be lowered from £9,100 per year to £5,000. This comes on top of growing use of online shopping, stretched finances following the cost of living crisis, meaning people have less money to spend, and more employees working from home, which means less footfall in high streets.
