Major high street fashion chain with 130 UK stores to shut town centre site

Posted by author March 1, 2025 Fashion

A GIANT high street retailer with 130 UK stores is set to shutter another town centre branch permanently.

Shoppers were saddened to hear about the imminent closure set for March 8.

Locals were keen to make the most of the brand’s clearance saleCredit: Alamy

It comes as Ann Summers announced a site in Taunton, Somerset, will be serving their last customers next week.

But, local residents were keen to make the most of the brand’s clearance sale.

An Ann Summers spokesperson told the Somerset County Gazette: “As part of the normal course of business, we regularly review the location of our stores, which occasionally results in new site openings, renovations, relocations, and store closures.

“Unfortunately, we will be closing our Taunton store on 8 March, 2025.

“Our customers can continue to shop with us online.”

While Ann Summers does not appear to be one of the retailers badly affected by high street closures, other industry giants are struggling.

New Look bosses made the decision to axe nearly 100 branches as they battle challenges linked to Autumn Budget tax changes.

Approximately a quarter of the retailer’s 364 stores are at risk when their leases expire.

This equates to about 91 stores, with a significant impact on New Look’s 8,000-strong workforce.

It’s understood the latest drive to accelerate closures is driven by the upcoming increase in National Insurance contributions for employers.

The move, announced by Chancellor Rachel Reeves in October, is expected to hit retailers hard – and the British Retail Consortium has predicted these changes will create a £2.3billion bill for the sector.

Meanwhile, the WHSmith brand name looks set to vanish from British high streets after 230 years.

In a fresh update, Boots UK also told The Sun that 253 stores have now shut as part of cost-cutting plans.

And, Homebase launched a big closing down sale as two more stores will shut amid 35 closures this month.

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.”