Huge outdoor chain with over 300 locations to shut shopping centre branch in DAYS

The Sun

27-07-2025

A major outdoor retailer with over 300 branches is set to close one of its stores.
The Trespass branch in Watford will shut its doors on October 31 - with an 'everything must go' sale now underway.
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The outdoor clothing and equipment shop is located on the upper mall level of Harlequin Watford shopping centre.
According to the Watford Observer, Trespass may relocate elsewhere in town, though this has not been confirmed.
For now, the store remains open during its usual hours - Monday to Saturday from 9am to 6pm and Sundays from 11am to 6pm.
Nearby branches can be found in Harrow, Hemel Hempstead and Hatfield.
Another business is expected to take over the unit once the Trespass store shuts.
The chain sells sportswear and outdoor gear, including skiwear, waterproof jackets, fleeces, festival accessories, walking boots and camping equipment.
This closure comes as part of a broader trend for the retailer.
In July 2023, Trespass announced it would shut six outlets.
The stores were located in Derby, Harrogate, Canterbury, Solihul, Workington and Chesterfield.
In 2024, it announced plans to shut 12 more Trespass stores, including sites in Coventry, Norwich, and Middlesbrough.
The Middlesbrough store - which had opened only two years earlier - closed in early 2025.
However, the Norwich branch later reopened at a new location in Castle Quarter.
In May, Trespass pulled down the shutters on its Aylesbury store in Buckinghamshire.
Meanwhile, popular homeware chain Lakeland is also preparing to shut one of its high street stores.
The Lakeland store on Broad Street in Reading will shut on August 8, the store confirmed to The Sun.
Signs in the window announce the closure and an 'everything must go' sale.
Based in Windermere in the Lake District, Lakeland operates 58 stores across the UK and employs around 1,000 staff.
The retailer is known for selling a range of homeware and kitchen products, including spatulas, food containers and baking suppliers.
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.
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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