Store closures have plagued high street shoppers for months, with many retailers announcing closures in 2023.
Now after three more months of stores being axed across the UK, brands have confirmed further changes to their property portfolios.
Marks and Spencer and Boots are among the largest brands to confirm closures this April, along with fashion retailer Peacocks.
Stationery giant WHSmith is expected to follow suit in pulling the shutters on shops, as is Sports Direct.
Here’s the full list of locations with confirmed store closures – is your high street affected?
Marks and Spencer
The upmarket brand has been a go-to for all things food, home, beauty and fashion for decades, but now, the brand is focusing on expanding its grocery offerings for customers.
In October 2022 Marks and Spencer bosses announced it would shut 67 “lower productivity” locations over the following five years. The 67 closures come as part of 110 that M&S previously earmarked for closure.
Shoppers in Peterborough will bid farewell to their local store this month before 11 others quickly follow suit.
It comes after the brand closed down its Cheltenham shop just days ago on March 30, which marked the start of a string of 11 stores being axed for good, or relocated.
The full list of imminent closures includes:
- Peterborough – April 2024
- Neath, Wales – May 2024
- Aberdeen, Scotland – 2025
- Weymouth – exact date to be confirmed
- Sunderland – exact date to be confirmed
- Walworth, London – exact date to be confirmed
- Hexham – exact date to be confirmed
- Bradford – exact date to be confirmed
- Ilford – exact date to be confirmed
- Blackburn – exact date to be confirmed
Boots
Boots have long been a staple on British high streets, for all things health and beauty, but many towns and cities could be set to lose their local branch.
The health and beauty chain previously announced it would be closing 300 shops over the next year, leading to a string of closures in 2023 and several more this year. Colwyn Bay is the next to go in April 2024, though no exact date has been given just yet.
Peacocks
The affordable fashion brand will drop more stores from its portfolio, after axing its site in Ashford, Kent on March 23.
Though Peacocks currently has 350 stores in the UK, this is a scaled-back figure from previous years. This week, the affordable home and fashion retailer will pull down the shutters on its store in Camborne, Cornwall on April 3.
WHSmith
In June 2023, the retailer confirmed it would pull the plug on opening any more high street branches and instead, focus on its portfolio elsewhere.
The stationary giant claimed that opening high street stores would “just be a duplication” and that it would instead expand in other formats, specifically train stations, airports and other areas.
Meanwhile, WHSmith will close some stores with the next one to go in Margate, Kent on April 20.
Sports Direct
The popular sports store has 500 branches but is set to close one of its sites permanently. Sports Direct will lose its shop on Octagon Parade in High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire.
It’s not all bad news though as a new Sports Direct store will open in the former Zara unit in the Eden Shopping Centre on April 19.
A spokesperson for Frasers Group who owns Sports Direct told The Sun: “The Sports Direct store will give High Wycombe customers access to the world’s best sports and lifestyle brands, as well as offer other brands from the Frasers Group ecosystem, including USC and GAME.”
