Major retailer with 89 stores to shut seven ‘no longer viable’ branches in fresh blow to high street

A MAJOR retailer with 89 stores is set to start shutting seven "no longer viable" branches within weeks. Jewellery chain Beaverbrooks will shutter the stores across March and April in a fresh blow to the high street. The more than 100-year-old company told The Sun it is trimming its store estate following a review. After the closures, Beaverbrooks will operate 82 sites across the UK. Anna Blackburn, managing director, said: "Due to a range of factors, there are seven stores that are unfortunately no longer commercially viable, and after careful and thorough consideration we have made the difficult decision to close them.".

The stores are located across the UK, including five in England: Birmingham Fort, Croydon, High Wycbome, Huddersfield and Sutton Coldfield. One in Dundee and another in East Kilbride, both in Scotland, will also shutter from next month. All seven shops remain open and operating for now. Ms Blackburn said Beaverbrooks would try to retain as many staff from the affected branches as possible. She added the multi award-winning business plans to open a new store in Harrogate in Spring while some of its branches are under renovation.

News of the closures has been met with devastation from shoppers and locals though, who have come to rely on the branches for all their jewellery needs. Commenting on the High Wycombe closure on Facebook, one shopper said: "Oh no what a shame! My engagement ring and wedding and are from there and all the staff are lovely.". Another sad local added: "What a terrible shame.". One shopper discovering the Sutton Coldfield branch will shut said: "Shame it's going. I remember walking past it every day for college 2004-2006.".

A second said: "Really sorry to hear this.". In its most recent accounts, Beaverbrooks said profitability in the 53 weeks to March 2, 2024, had "reduced considerably" despite an increased turnover. This, it said, was in part due to increasing worker's pay and property refurbishments and repairs. Turnover is the total amount of money made by a business over a certain period of time. The seven upcoming closures come after Beaverbrooks shuttered a store in Romford, London, last March.

It's worth bearing in mind, retailers often close branches and open them in other areas based on customer demand and trends. 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.". The retail sector has been hit hard in recent years as the trend towards online shopping intensifies.

The most recent data from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) shows online retail sales increased from 5% of all retail sales in 2008 to 27% in 2022. Shoppers have also been feeling the pinch in recent years following sky-high inflation which has dented their wallets and purses. It has led to a number of major retailers having to close stores to shore up their finances. Boots announced in 2023 it would shut 300 of its branches in a bid to slim down its high street presence while WHSmith is in talks to sell off 500 of its stores.

Jewellery chains have been forced into closing branches as well. Claire's has closed a number of stores in recent years, including in Gillingham, Nuneaton and Newton Abbott. T H Baker also shuttered a branch in Cambridge in May last year. EMPTY shops have become an eyesore on many British high streets and are often symbolic of a town centre’s decline. The Sun's business editor Ashley Armstrong explains why so many retailers are shutting their doors.