Major department store with 26 shops UK-wide shuts TODAY after closing down sale

Scottish Sun

23-05-2025

Around 17,350 retail sites are expected to shut down this year
SHUTTERS DOWN Major department store with 26 shops UK-wide shuts TODAY after closing down sale
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AN iconic department store has closed its doors for good today.
The legendary retail giant has pulled the shutters down on the once-beloved high street staple.
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The once-popular retailer has closed multiple stores across the UK
Credit: Getty
The recent closing down sale has marked the end of the city's historic House of Fraser.
The Lincoln High Street site has housed the department store for more than 100 years, while it was previously called Mawer and Collingham.
In 1980, the company was bought by House of Fraser.
Its closure highlights a "real problem" for the city centre losing a big "anchor tenant".
The old building in the city centre is said to be 'difficult to redevelop' with it being right beside a road.
The luxury Radisson Hotel chain had won planning permission in 2020 to demolish the building and replace it with a 150-bed 'lifestyle' hotel featuring shops, a restaurant, a gym, a bar, and a courtyard garden.
The proposal was expected to create 190 jobs and boost Lincoln's economy.
However, these plans never materialised, and the permission expired in May 2023.
House of Fraser was saved from collapse by billionaire businessman Mike Ashley back in 2018.
But while the deal saved the chain's 59 stores and 17,000 workers who were facing the axe many more stores have closed in recent years.
Topshop teases high street return
Other stores affected include Bristol, Bluewater, Birmingham, Cardiff and Guildford.
Inflation and the cost-of-living crisis have made large-scale projects increasingly difficult to come to fruition.
Decreasing store sales and rising staff costs have made it impossible for shops to stay open.
The Centre for Retail Research (CRR) has warned that around 17,350 retail sites are expected to shut down this year.
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.