A MAJOR jewellery chain is set to close three more stores this weekend in a blow to shoppers.
The Beaverbrooks shops in Huddersfield will shut on Saturday, while its stores in Croydon and Sutton Coldfield will close for good on Sunday.
Beaverbrooks is closing three shops this weekend[/caption]
A closing-down sale has been launched at all three shops, with all items now 50% off.
A message on the Beaverbrooks website reads: “We’d like to say thank you to all our customers for visiting our store over the years and for celebrating your special moments with us.
“Please do visit us and shop our closing down sale to save 50% on beautiful diamonds, jewellery and watches.”
Last month The Sun exclusively revealed that Beaverbrooks will close seven branches in March and April that are “no longer commercially viable”.
The news comes after the chain shuttered five stores last month.
Here is the full list of stores set to shut and their closure dates:
- East Kilbride, Scotland – Closed March 16
- Dundee, Scotland – Closed March 16
- Birmingham Fort – March 23
- High Wycombe – March 23
- Huddersfield – April 5
- Croydon – April 6
- Sutton Coldfield – April 6
When the closures were first announced managing director Anna Blackburn said the decision was made following a review of business performance.
She said: “We aim to retain as many colleagues as possible within other Beaverbrooks stores or the wider business, and are working closely with each individual affected to provide them with options for their specific needs, supporting them with their next steps whatever they may be.”
She added that the directors delivered the news in person to every team member.
Beaverbrooks is making big changes to its retail footprint this year.
It plans to open a new store in Harrogate on April 11.
Meanwhile, some of its branches are being renovated.
In its most recent accounts filed with Companies House the chain said profitability in the 53 weeks to March 2, 2024 had fallen “considerably”.
Why are retailers closing shops?
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.
In many cases, retailers are shutting stores because they are no longer the money-makers they once were because of the rise of online shopping.
Falling store sales and rising staff costs have made it even more expensive for shops to stay open.
The British Retail Consortium has predicted that the Treasury’s hike to employer NICs from April 2025, will cost the retail sector £2.3billion.
At the same time, the minimum wage will rise to £12.21 an hour from April, and the minimum wage for people aged 18-20 will rise to £10 an hour, an increase of £1.40.
In some cases, retailers are shutting a store and reopening a new shop at the other end of a high street to reflect how a town has changed.
The problem is that when a big shop closes, footfall falls across the local high street, which puts more shops at risk of closing.
Retail parks are increasingly popular with shoppers, who want to be able to get easy, free parking at a time when local councils have hiked parking charges in towns.
Many retailers including Next and Marks & Spencer have been shutting stores on the high street and taking bigger stores in better-performing retail parks instead.
In some cases, stores have been shut when a retailer goes bust, as in the case of Carpetright, Debenhams, Dorothy Perkins, Paperchase, Ted Baker, The Body Shop, Topshop and Wilko to name a few.
What’s increasingly common is when a chain goes bust a rival retailer or private equity firm snaps up the intellectual property rights so they can own the brand and sell it online.
They may go on to open a handful of stores if there is customer demand, but there are rarely ever as many stores or in the same places.
The Centre for Retail Research (CRR) has warned that around 17,350 retail sites are expected to shut down this year.
It added: “Despite increasing turnover and market share, profitability for the period was reduced considerably which reflects significant and broad increases in costs.”
Turnover is the amount of money a business makes over a certain period of time.
Beaverbrooks said the decrease in turnover had been caused by an increase in workers’ pay, property refurbishment and repairs.
It is not the first time Beaverbrooks has closed stores.
The chain shuttered a store in Romford, London last month.
Not all store closures are due to financial struggles in a business.
Retailers sometimes close branches or open them in other areas depending on customer demand and trends.
Which other retailers are closing stores?
WHSmith is set to close six stores this month as it continues to withdraw from the high street to focus on its travel arm.
The stores earmarked for closure are:
- Halstead, Essex
- Halesowen, West Midlands
- Diss, Norfolk
- Newport, Wales
- Haverhill, Suffolk
- Woolwich, London
No dates have been given for the closures yet apart from Haverhill, which will close for good on April 26.
Last month it shut branches in Basingstoke and Winton, Bournemouth.
The WHSmith brand is set to leave the high street for good as it has agreed to sell 500 shops as part of a £76million deal.
Retail investor Modella Capital has bought the portfolio and all stores will be rebranded as TGJones.
WHsmith will instead focus on its 580 travel stores in airports, hospitals, railway stations and motorway service areas.
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.”
Sports Direct is also set to close a store this month.
Its shop in Newmarket Road, Cambridge will close for good on April 18.
The chain has closed several branches in the past few years.
Its shop in the Central Six Retail Park, Coventry, closed at the end of January 2024.
Meanwhile, its branches in Stroud, Gloucestershire, and High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire, also shut down last year.
Meanwhile, FarmFoods is closing one of its longest-standing branches on Sunday.
The shop in Dundee will close for good as bosses took the decision not to renew their lease at the site.
The retailer has also shut branches in Banbury and Southend.
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