A MAP has revealed all the WHSmith stores closing this year with the retailer in talks to sell 500 UK shops.
The high street staple is shuttering 10 branches over the coming months after closing several stores already.
Shoppers will be waving goodbye to stores in the West Midlands, London and Greater Manchester.
It comes after WHSmith confirmed plans to sell off hundreds of its high street stores.
WHSmith, which runs around 1,100 stores, has already shut eight branches this year.
One other store is shutting this month, although an exact closure date has not been revealed.
WHSmith said in November it will close up to 20 stores each year over the next three years.
But separately, the chain plans to open 90 new stores at different sites over the same period.
Stores will close over the coming months in Accrington, Halstead, Halesowen, Diss and Newport in Wales.
Five more will shut in Haverhill, Woolwich, Stockton, Oldham and Orpington. This is the full list of branches set to close:
- Accrington, Lancashire – March 15
- Halstead, Essex – April
- Halesowen, West Midlands – April
- Diss, Norfolk – April
- Newport, Wales – April
- Haverhill, Suffolk – April 26
- Woolwich, London – April
- Stockton, County Durham – May
- Oldham, Greater Manchester – May
- Orpington, Greater London – no date given yet
Customers who use the 10 branches earmarked for closure have reacted with devastation after finding out they’ll shut for good.
Posting on Facebook about the Halesowen branch closure, one shopper said: “Halesowen is becoming a ghost town.”
One customer commenting on the Diss closure said: “This is unfair for this town.”
Meanwhile, a third shopper from Oldham jibed: “Couldn’t make it up.”
OTHER WHSMITH NEWS
The closures come as WHSmith looks to offload 500 of its UK high street branches in a major move.
The retailer confirmed last month it is in negotiations with a number of prospective buyers for the sites.
A WHSmith spokeswoman told The Sun the retail group was “exploring potential strategic options for this profitable and cash generative part of the group, including a possible sale”.
However, the statement added: “There can be no certainty that any agreement will be reached, and further updates will be provided as and when appropriate.”
The Sun exclusively revealed two days later Doug Putman, the Canadian entrepreneur who rescued HMV from bankruptcy in 2019, was considering a swoop on the 500 branches.
Sources said it was hoped a deal could be reached within three months.
Other bidders could make an approach to buy the 500 stores though, including Alteri and Hilco.
It comes as WHSmith looks to move away from physical high street stores and towards opening airport and train station branches.
The stationer said last January it wanted to open 15 new shops in airports, railway stations and hospitals before the end of 2024.
This formed part of wider plans to open 110 new branches worldwide.
Group chief executive Carl Cowling said at the time: “The group is trading well and is in its strongest ever position as a global travel retailer.
“We are confident of another year of significant growth in 2024.”
“We continue to make excellent progress in North America, and I am particularly excited by the substantial growth opportunities that exist in this market.”
Why are retailers closing shops?
EMPTY shops have become an eyesore on many British high streets and are often symbolic of a town centre’s decline.
The Sun’s business editor Ashley Armstrong explains why so many retailers are shutting their doors.
In many cases, retailers are shutting stores because they are no longer the money-makers they once were because of the rise of online shopping.
Falling store sales and rising staff costs have made it even more expensive for shops to stay open.
The British Retail Consortium has predicted that the Treasury’s hike to employer NICs from April 2025, will cost the retail sector £2.3billion.
At the same time, the minimum wage will rise to £12.21 an hour from April, and the minimum wage for people aged 18-20 will rise to £10 an hour, an increase of £1.40.
In some cases, retailers are shutting a store and reopening a new shop at the other end of a high street to reflect how a town has changed.
The problem is that when a big shop closes, footfall falls across the local high street, which puts more shops at risk of closing.
Retail parks are increasingly popular with shoppers, who want to be able to get easy, free parking at a time when local councils have hiked parking charges in towns.
Many retailers including Next and Marks & Spencer have been shutting stores on the high street and taking bigger stores in better-performing retail parks instead.
In some cases, stores have been shut when a retailer goes bust, as in the case of Carpetright, Debenhams, Dorothy Perkins, Paperchase, Ted Baker, The Body Shop, Topshop and Wilko to name a few.
What’s increasingly common is when a chain goes bust a rival retailer or private equity firm snaps up the intellectual property rights so they can own the brand and sell it online.
They may go on to open a handful of stores if there is customer demand, but there are rarely ever as many stores or in the same places.
The Centre for Retail Research (CRR) has warned that around 17,350 retail sites are expected to shut down this year.
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