A major fashion retailer will shut almost triple the amount of stores it originally earmarked for closure, as economic conditions continue to batter struggling high street businesses.
Select Fashion announced earlier this month that it would close 12 of its shops in a matter of weeks – but the figure has now been revised to 35, with all located outside of London.
The affordable clothing retailer is expected to bring the shutters down over the coming weeks, with trading ceasing by the middle of March.
Stores across towns and cities in the UK earmarked for closure include Southampton, Bristol, Wolverhampton and Hartlepool.
Experts say the cull is a significant one for Select Fashion, which will downsize its current trading portfolio by just under a half with these latest closures.
It comes after the fashion brand fell into administration in 2019, with the retailer blaming tough economic conditions on the high street.
Select Fashion, owned by Turkish entrepreneur Cafer Mahiroğlu, was later bought out of administration by Genus UK Limited.
The chain entered into a Company Voluntary Arrangement (CVA) last summer, according to recent filings on Companies House.
Select Fashion has tripled the amount of stores it originally earmarked for closure
The affordable clothing retailer will close 35 stores across the UK over coming weeks
Experts say the cull is a significant one for Select Fashion, which will downsize its current trading portfolio by just under a half with these latest closures
A CVA is a way of restructuring that allows a company to negotiate with its creditors to pay off its debts, such as reducing rent costs with landlords.
Other fashion retailers that have entered into a CVA in recent years include New Look, Jigsaw and Hotter Shoes, as well as Caffe Nero and Body Shop.
Meanwhile Quiz Clothing called in administrators last week and is eyeing up the possibility of closing 23 stores, with around 200 employees expected to be made redundant, Sky News reported.
The last year has also seen major retailers across the sector that have struggled financially or been forced to close stores, including Ted Baker, Matches, Muji and Farfetch.
New documents seen by The Sun reveal just 48 Select stores will remain trading after the closures have taken place.
At its peak, Select operated 169 stores before it went into administration.
Stores in Ipswich, Kent and Cwmbran closed their doors last year, alongside a branch in Erith Riverside Shopping Centre in London.
Disappointed shoppers who favoured the brand said it was ‘such a shame’, while others fear they will be left with a ‘ghost town’ when their local Select stores down their shutters for good.
High street struggles: Quiz Clothing called in administrators last week and is eyeing up the possibility of closing 23 stores, with around 200 employees expected to be made redundant
Select entered into a Company Voluntary Arrangement (CVA) last summer, with other retailers having followed this route, including New Look
More than 13,000 shops closed their doors for good in 2024 – an increase of 28 per cent on the year before
One saddened customer wrote of the store closure in Worksop, Nottinghamshire wrote on social media: ‘It will be a shame to see you go as I have always been and got my clothes from your shop over the years. Worksop is going to be a ghost town.’
Another said of the store closure in The Swan Centre, Kidderminster: ‘Another shop bites the dust’.
The latest troubles for Select Fashion follow new data that more than 13,000 shops closed their doors for good in 2024 – an increase of 28 per cent on the year before, MailOnline reported last month.
Industry experts say there is worse to come, with a predicted 17,350 shops shutting in 2025.
It is the highest figure since the Centre for Retail Research (CRR), which compiled the report, began collecting the data in 2015 and follows the closure of 13,479 stores last year.
The vast majority of closed shops in 2024 – 11,341 – were independent retailers, a 45.5 per cent jump against the previous year.
Firms are set to be battered by Chancellor Rachel Reeves‘ plans to hike National Insurance contributions and implement an inflation-busting increase in the minimum wage from April.
Retailers have also begged the government to reform the hated business rates system, a levy based on the rental value of a commercial property which means shops pay a premium compared with online giants such as Amazon.
Store closure figures were compiled by industry experts at the Centre for Retail Research
| Administration | Rationalisation | Totals | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Multiples: stores closed | 918 | 1,220 | 2,138 |
| Independents: store closures | 6,619 | 4,722 | 11,341 |
| Total stores closed | 7,537 | 5,942 | 13,479 |
| Source: Centre for Retail Research | |||
The sector is already struggling as the cost-of-living crisis forces shoppers to tighten their belts.
But the looming tax raid and a reduction in business rates relief is expected to deal another hammer blow to retailers across the UK.
Business leaders have called for the Chancellor to ‘urgently’ change course with her tax-raising policies to prevent British high streets from becoming ghost towns.
The CRR’s forecast of 17,350 store closures would make 2025 worse than 2022, when the withdrawal of government support measures following the pandemic caused 17,151 shops to close.
Around 16,145 stores shut their doors at the height of lockdown in 2020.
Professor Joshua Bamfield, director of the CRR said: ‘Whilst 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 to come in 2025.’
Of the predicted 2025 figure, the vast majority of store closures, 14,660, are expected to be independent retailers.
These firms usually operate on very tight profit margins and may not have enough cash to cover the cost of the Treasury’s tax raid and minimum wage hikes.
‘This is a tragic scenario that we warned the government could come to pass if they did not change course,’ said Andrew Goodacre, head of the British Independent Retailers Association.
He added: ‘Overall costs for independent retailers are going up and the planned increases in National Insurance, minimum wage and business rates will leave many with no choice but to shut up shop.’
Ms Reeves declared in October that employers would pay a 15 per cent National Insurance rate on staff salaries exceeding £5,000 from April rather than the current 13.8 per cent levy on wages above £9,100.
She also said the National Living Wage would go up by 77p to £12.21 per hour, alongside increases in the capital gains tax rates on selling business assets.
Retailers have been among those leading the charge against the Chancellor’s punishing tax measures.
In November, more than 80 bosses signed an open letter to Reeves warning that her Budget plans would force them to hike prices, cut jobs and close stores.
Signatories included the heads of high street giants Marks & Spencer, Next and John Lewis as well as the major supermarkets such as Tesco, Sainsbury’s, Morrisons and Asda.
Meanwhile, firms have called for ministers to reform the business rates system to make physical shops more competitive with their online counterparts.
The latest troubles for Select Fashion follow new data that more than 13,000 shops closed their doors for good in 2024 – an increase of 28 per cent on the year before. Pictured: Pedestrians pass boarded-up shops in Hastings, East Sussex
Before the Budget, bosses had called on the Chancellor to extend Covid-era relief schemes which cut their business rates bills by 75 per cent.
But instead, rates relief for hospitality and retail businesses was cut to 40 per cent.
Commercial property firm Altus Group estimated that as a result of the discount being cut to 40 per cent from 75 per cent the average shop’s business rates bill would spiral from £3,589 to £8,613 for the 2025 to 2026 tax year.
Helen Dickinson, chief executive of industry body the British Retail Consortium (BRC), said: ‘2025 looks to be challenging for the retail industry, with high costs and weak consumer confidence going into the new year.
‘Retailers will be looking at the £7 billion in new costs from the Budget facing the industry this year with increased concern.’
She added that the new levies would ‘heap pressure’ on the industry and that many firms would ‘have no choice but to raise prices or cut costs by closing stores.’
MailOnline has approached Select Fashion for comment.
