Major outdoor chain with 300 branches shuts doors to beloved store forever after launching ‘everything must go’ sale
A HUGE outdoor retailer with over 300 branches has shut down a beloved store today.
The chain launched an “everything must go” sale as it put the shutters down for the last time.
Trespass has closed down its Aylesbury shop in Buckinghamshire.
The store was one of the very first that shoppers would have seen after entering the Frias Square Shopping Centre.
Ahead of its closure, the shop erected a huge sign in the window which announced a closing down sale.
The chain of outdoor retailers announced in July 2023 that six of its outlets would be closing its doors for good.
The reason given for this was that the retailer had suffered from a lack of customers.
In 2024, at least 12 Trespass stores officially closed.
Shoppers in Coventry, Norwich and Middlesbrough have all had to wave goodbye to their local Trespass stores.
The Middlesbrough store had only opened two years ago, after taking over from Monsoon who shut down in 2020.
The wave of closures has come after scores of shops have put the shutters down for good in recent years.
Some businesses have blamed the government, arguing that Rachel Reeves’ decision to raise National Insurance contributions for businesses has made it more expensive to run a company.
However, the Chancellor has said that her decisions were necessary to stabilise an economy she inherited from the previous Tory government.
In April 2025, the economy grew by 0.5 per cent as investment in the country grew.
Other businesses have pointed the blame at “Covid” and “Brexit”, saying that it has become more difficult to hire skilled workers.
A spokesperson for La Goccia, a luxury restaurant in Covent Garden, was forced to close due to economic pressures and because of hiring problems.
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.”