Budget retail chain to shut NINE stores this month as it launches string of closing down sales – is one going near you?

Scottish Sun

6 hours ago

Read more to find out if you live near one of the stores
RISKY BUSINESS Budget retail chain to shut NINE stores this month as it launches string of closing down sales – is one going near you?
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A BELOVED retail chain is shutting a whopping nine locations in a wave of closing down sales this month - and you could be living right next to one.
The popular budget store has hundreds of sites across the UK - but news of the closures has sent shoppers flocking to the shutting branches for one last bargain.
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A beloved UK retail chain is shutting nine locations and launching massive sales
Credit: Getty
The Original Factory Shop has slashed the prices on everything, from clothing to gardening tools to toys.
Clothing rails have been slapped with signs offering discounts as the major retailer kicks off closing down sales.
If you're after summer steals, the closing stores are bursting with bargains – from pretty dresses to handy garden gadgets.
It comes as part of a major restructuring carried out by new owner Modella Capital with a number of loss making stores having to close as result.
Over June nine of these stores will close, including sites in Dorest and Durham.
Another site in Middlewich is also set to close however a date is yet to be confirmed.
You can see the full list of store closures in June here:
Milford Haven, Pembrokeshire - June 26
- June 26 Perth - June 28
- June 28 Chester Le Street, County Durham - June 28
- June 28 Arbroath, Angus - June 28
- June 28 Kidwelly, Carmarthenshire - June 28
- June 28 Pershore, Worcestershire - June 28
- June 28 Normanton, West Yorkshire - June 28
- June 28 Peterhead, Aberdeenshire - June 28
- June 28 Shaftesbury, Dorset - June 28
The following stores will close later on:
Staveley, Cumbria - July 12
- July 12 Middlewich - TBC
- TBC Heswall - TBC
Beloved high street chain with 24 Irish locations confirms Dublin city centre store closing down in 10 days in huge blow
And these stores are also up for sale:
Nairn
Market Drayton
Troon
Blairgowrie
Castle Douglas
Private equity firm Modella bought The Original Factory Shop back in February.
It has since launched a huge restructuring effort to renegotiate rents at 88 TOFS stores.
Modella is known for picking up struggling retailers.
The firm recently acquired flailing Hobbycraft, and WHSmith's high street shops.
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.
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."
It is set to rebrand all WHSmith high street stores to TGJones, and has brought in advisers to look at potential options for Hobbycraft.
At the end of April, Modella drew up plans to initiate a company voluntary arrangement (CVA) for TOFS.
Companies often use CVAs to prevent insolvency, which could otherwise result in store closures or the collapse of the entire business.
They allow firms to explore different strategies such as negotiating reduced rent rates with landlords.
TOFS previously told The Press and Journal that a "number of loss-making stores will have to close" as part of the restructuring.
The Sun reached out to The Original Factory Shop for comment.