High street card retailer with 179 branches to close ‘wonderful’ site following string of closures
A HIGH street card retailer with 179 branches is poised to permanently shut a “wonderful” site, after a string of closures.
Clintons will close its branch in Bexhill town centre, East Sussex, for good after trading ends today.
The store had been displaying a 20 per cent off closing down sale sign, according to local news reports.
Locals took to Facebook after hearing the news in May which some say was disappointing.
One Facebook user said: “Such a shame that Bexhill is losing another shop.”
“I wouldn’t buy from anywhere else,” said a shopper on Google.
“It’s a wonderful shop,” said another shopper.
Staff confirmed to The Sun the store was closing over the phone.
Clintons currently employs 1,400 people across 179 outlets nationwide.
The high street retailer last pulled down the shutters on its branch Kettering’s Newlands Shopping Centre in May.
It also closed a branch in Castle Street, Hinckley, Leicestershire on February 17.
Clintons is among retailers to have been affected by depressed high street footfall and competition from online rivals.
In August 2023, restructuring experts FRP Advisory and law firm Jones Day presented plans to save the business in an insolvency court.
The deal will help save thousands of jobs and more than 100 shops across the UK, but it still means dozens of branches will have to close their doors for good.
This led to the closure of stores in Cumbria, Bolton and Leeds last year.
More recently, Clintons closed its branch in Haverhill, Suffolk, in March this year
This involved waving goodbye to a selection of shops that were not earning enough money to make them profitable to keep.
Originally, Clintons planned to merge with another struggling stationary brand Paperchase.
However, the firm sadly went into administration at the start of last year.
At its peak, Clinton’s had 2,500 staff working across 335 shops.
What is happening to the high street?
The high street has been hit hard in recent years as shoppers increasingly turn to online retail.
High energy costs and business rates have further piled pressure on businesses.
This has left some remaining retailers grappling with budgets and having no choice but to close stores.
Several major brands have fallen into administration since the start of 2023, including Wilko and Paperchase.
This year, The Body Shop fell into administration and it has seen dozens of branches close, 82 will have shut in total by the end of the month.
Boots announced it would be closing 300 stores over the next year as part of plans to evolve its brand.
Ted Baker is at risk of vanishing from the high street forever as administrators plan to shut all its shops.
Staff at the troubled retail chain were given just three weeks’ notice towards the end of July that they will be losing their jobs when the shops are closed.
Why are retailers closing stores?
RETAILERS have been feeling the squeeze since the pandemic, while shoppers are cutting back on spending due to the soaring cost of living crisis.
High energy costs and a move to shopping online after the pandemic are also taking a toll, and many high street shops have struggled to keep going.
The high street has seen a whole raft of closures over the past year, and more are coming.
The number of jobs lost in British retail dropped last year, but 120,000 people still lost their employment, figures have suggested.
Figures from the Centre for Retail Research revealed that 10,494 shops closed for the last time during 2023, and 119,405 jobs were lost in the sector.
It was fewer shops than had been lost for several years, and a reduction from 151,641 jobs lost in 2022.
The centre’s director, Professor Joshua Bamfield, said the improvement is “less bad” than good.
Although there were some big-name losses from the high street, including Wilko, many large companies had already gone bust before 2022, the centre said, such as Topshop owner Arcadia, Jessops and Debenhams.
“The cost-of-living crisis, inflation and increases in interest rates have led many consumers to tighten their belts, reducing retail spend,” Prof Bamfield said.
“Retailers themselves have suffered increasing energy and occupancy costs, staff shortages and falling demand that have made rebuilding profits after extensive store closures during the pandemic exceptionally difficult.”
Alongside Wilko, which employed around 12,000 people when it collapsed, 2023’s biggest failures included Paperchase, Cath Kidston, Planet Organic and Tile Giant.
The Centre for Retail Research said most stores were closed because companies were trying to reorganise and cut costs rather than the business failing.
However, experts have warned there will likely be more failures this year as consumers keep their belts tight and borrowing costs soar for businesses.
The Body Shop and Ted Baker are the biggest names to have already collapsed into administration this year.
It’s not all bad news
Several major retailers are also expanding their presence on UK high streets.
Aldi has announced that it will open 35 new UK stores.
The openings form part of Aldi‘s long-term target of 1,500 stores in the UK.
The supermarket is set to invest £550million in expanding its UK footprint this year alone.
Aldi said that each new store opening will create around 40 new jobs on average.
Asda has been opening hundreds of convenience stores in recent months as it looks to rival major players Tesco and Sainsbury’s.
B&M plans to open “not less than” 45 brand new stores across the UK in each of the next two consecutive years.
The parent company of Bonmarché, Edinburgh Woollen Mill (EWM) and Peacocks, Purepay Retail Limited, has said it wants to open 100 new high street stores over the next 18 months.
It has yet to give the exact locations where it will open the 100 stores or when they will open.
One of the UK’s favourite bakery chain, Greggs, has exclusively revealed to The Sun plans to open more outlet branches by the end of 2025.
Home Bargains, which was running just under 600 branches as of last June, has said it wants to “eventually have between 800 and 1,000 retail outlets open”.
The major discounter has stopped short of saying when it wants to reach the 1,000 store target however.
Primark is also opening new branches and investing and renovating more than a dozen of its existing shops.
Screwfix is set to open 40 new stores nationwide as its owner, Kingfisher, seeks to expand the DIY brand’s national presence.
The brand opened two new stores in March, and a further three new shops will open this month.
Tesco has revealed plans to open 70 more stores across the UK over the next year as part of major expansion plans.
WHSmith has turned its focus to the travel side of its business, with plans to open new sites in airports, railway stations and hospitals.
Lidl is also looking to open 12 new stores across the UK as it bids to raise £91million in funding from investors.
