Big chain with over 200 shops to close branch within hours after big sale
Warren James announced that its shop on the Andover outlet in the Chantry Centre will close for good tomorrow.
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The closure is reportedly due to the branch's lease expiring.
However, the chain has yet to explain why the popular store is closing down.
Despite the closure announcement, shoppers were given one last chance to bag a bargain sparkle.
Local council bosses have revealed that they're already looking to re-let the space.
A spokesperson for Test Valley Borough Council, which owns and runs the shopping centre, admitted it was 'a shame' to see Warren James go, but insisted new tenants are always in the pipeline.
They added that the centre has remained lively thanks to flexible leases, grants for independents and a mix of tenants keeping vacancy rates below the national average.
Struggling with rising costs and reduced footfall over the past few years.
Dozens of shops are set to close across the country before the end of the month in the latest blow to UK high streets.
One of these includes Smiggle, known for its colourful, quirky pens, lunchboxes and school bags, which revealed it is shutting up shop at the Darwin Centre in Shrewsbury.
Why are shops closing stores?
Meanwhile, family business B.D Price, a beloved toy and bike store in Dudley, West Midlands, announced its closure after 160 years.
Rising living costs, leaving shoppers with less cash to spend, and an increase in online shopping have battered retailers in recent years.
In some cases, landlords are either unwilling or unable to invest in keeping shops open, further speeding up the closures.
It comes after a huge fashion store with 250 branches across the UK is closing another branch.
And a popular dessert chain with 30 locations has been forced to close shop after just six months.
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."
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