A MAJOR retailer with 84 branches is set to close one of its stores in days in a blow for the high street.
Superdry is pulling down the shutters on the location at the Eastgate Shopping Centre in Basildon, Essex, on Saturday.
Superdry is closing its branch in Basildon on the weekend[/caption]
It comes as another branch in Bradford is set to close down in just weeks.
Staff at the Basildon branch have put up signs directing shoppers to the Superdry website ahead of its closure, which was first reported by the Essex Echo.
Shoppers have been left devastated after finding out the branch will close its doors for good in days.
Posting on Facebook, one said: “There will be no shops over there soon only blooming load of flats.”
A second commented: “Won’t be long until it’s a ghost town.”
Meanwhile, a third added: “Another empty shop!”
And a fourth chimed in: “Shops are a thing of the past unfortunately.”
The Basildon branch closure comes as another in Bradford is set to shut permanently in just weeks.
The Broadway Shopping Centre store’s last day of trading will be March 15, according to one member of staff The Sun spoke to.
It comes just one month after the British business closed a branch at the Union Square Shopping Centre in Aberdeen.
The site closed on February 15 after a 30% off closing down sale was launched.
A string of Superdry branches closed in 2024 following tough trading conditions.
The retailer, introduced to the masses by David Beckham, closed 12 stores over the first half of last year.
The fashion brand said last January it was looking at various “cost-saving options” after reports it was considering major restructuring.
This followed the firm saying its revenue had fallen by nearly a quarter to £219.8million in the six months to the end of October 2023.
The fashion retailer said its adjusted loss had nearly doubled to £25.3million.
The Superdry Basildon closure comes after a number of other retailers shut branches in the area.
Kaspa’s Desserts in the town was forced to close earlier this year after the landlord failed to “pay a penny in rent.”
Meanwhile, major DIY retailer Homebase closed its branch in Vange, on the outskirts of Basildon, just last month.
HIGH STREET STRUGGLES
The high street has struggled in recent years as the trend towards online shopping continues.
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.
A House of Lords report published last year even admitted the dominance of retail on high streets was “something of the past”.
It said there was a greater demand for restaurants and leisure activities, as well as public services, such as health centres and libraries, in town centres.
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 centre’s same research predicts more than 17,300 stores will close their doors for good in 2025 too.
It linked the rise to the upcoming hike to employer National Insurance Contributions (NICs) and national minimum wage, which will both come into effect next month.
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.
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