The Original Factory Shop is shutting EIGHT stores today after launching 80% off closing sales – is your local going?

The Sun

21 hours ago

THE Original Factory Shop is pulling down the shutters on eight of its high street branches today, with up to 80% off in massive closing down sales.
The budget retailer, which sells everything from fashion and fragrance to homeware and gifts, is shutting up shop at locations across the UK as part of a major restructuring effort.
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Shops in Pershore, Shaftesbury, Kidwelly, Arbroath, Normanton, Chester Le Street, Peterhead and Perth will all close for good by the end of today, Saturday, June 28.
Here are all the ones closing down today:
Perth
Chester Le Street, County Durham
Arbroath, Angus
Kidwelly, Carmarthenshire
Pershore, Worcestershire
Normanton, West Yorkshire
Peterhead, Aberdeenshire
Shaftesbury, Dorset
It comes just days after the Milford Haven branch in Pembrokeshire shut on Thursday, with three more stores already lined up to go next month, including the Staveley in Cumbria, Cupar in Fife, and Middlewich in Cheshire.
Massive clearance sales have been launched at affected branches with prices slashed by as much as 80% on stock like beauty, pet products, jewellery and shoes.
Shoppers at the Middlewich site have spotted some of the steepest discounts, while customers in Normanton and Pershore have also snapped up huge savings ahead of closing time.
One local, reacting to news that the Arbroath store is among the latest to go, said: 'Another one bites the dust on the high street.
"Going to be a ghost town soon enough.'
Another said the Pershore closure marked 'the end of an era.'
The wave of closures follows a Company Voluntary Arrangement (CVA) launched earlier this year after private equity firm Modella Capital bought the chain in February.
Modella, which also owns Hobbycraft and WHSmith 's high street shops, is trying to renegotiate rents on 88 stores to keep the business afloat.
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But The Original Factory Shop has warned that a 'number of loss-making stores' would have to shut to secure its future.
A spokesperson said: 'Closing stores is always a tough decision… but this is dependent on successful negotiations with landlords as we strive to build a sustainable and successful business.'
The Original Factory Shop has already closed more than a dozen branches since the start of the year, including sites in Harwich, Bodmin, Chepstow and Taunton.
The three stores that are set to close in coming weeks are:
HIGH STREET STRUGGLES
The Original Factory Shop is not the only retailer suffering across the high street.
The high street has faced a tough run in recent years, with online shopping booming while in-store sales slump and operating costs soar.
In 2024 alone, more than 13,000 high street stores were shuttered for good, according to the Centre for Retail Research.
It is also predicting the number of store closures to rise this year, blaming the increase on a hike to employer National Insurance contributions and the national minimum wage.
The Centre has described the sector as going through a "permacrisis" since the 2008 financial crash
This year, Beales, one of Britain's oldest department stores, launched a closing down sale before shutting its last remaining shop after more than 140 years.
The company shut its branch in Poole's Dolphin Centre last month.
Beales chief executive Tony Brown blamed the "devastating impact" of the rise in national insurance contributions and the higher minimum wage for the store closure.
Meanwhile, high street fashion chain New Look has closed stores as it scales back its UK footprint.
It is understood to be shutting nearly a quarter of its 364 shops.s.
Reports suggest that the company has been forced to accelerate the pace of store closures due to tax changes in the Autumn Budget.
Meanwhile, Huttons in London shut its store in the Putney Exchange due to excessive energy costs.
The gift shop became a local icon after it opened in the 1990s.
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."