‘We need these shops to exist’ sob fans as high street card store with 179 branches to close another site for good
A HIGH street card shop with 179 branches is closing another store in weeks.
Clintons will close its site in Kettering’s Newlands Shopping Centre next month.
The retailer’s store will bring the shutters down for the final time on May 8, according to local news reports.
It comes as signs telling shoppers that “everything must go” have appeared on the shop’s windows.
Customers have long praised this store online, and one shopper said that these “shops should still exist”.
Others said the store has a “very good selection of cards, balloons, gifts and teddies”.
“The store has a great selection of quality cards and gifts for every taste and occasion,” said a third shopper.
Newlands Shopping Centre operations manager Scott Edwards told the Northamptonshire Telegraph: “On the day that Clintons goes another national retailer will be replacing them.
“It’s been a pleasure working with Clintons throughout, but as times evolve and change, we welcome a new retailer to replace them.”
The shopping centre’s management stopped short of disclosing what retailer will replace the vacant unit.
The chain currently has 179 shops nationwide and employs 1,400 people.
Clintons last pulled down the shutters on its branch in Castle Street, Hinckley, Leicestershire on February 17.
Clintons is among retailers to have been affected by depressed high street footfall and competition from online rivals.
In August 2023, restructuring experts FRP Advisory and law firm Jones Day presented plans to save the business in an insolvency court.
The deal will help save thousands of jobs and over one hundred shops across the UK, but it still means dozens of branches will have to close their doors for good.
They came up with a deal to save thousands of jobs and over one hundred UK stores.
This led to the closure of stores in Cumbria, Bolton and Leeds last year.
More recently, Clintons closed its branch in Haverhill, Suffolk, last month.
This involved waving goodbye to a selection of shops that were not earning enough money to make them profitable to keep.
Originally, Clintons planned to merge with another struggling stationary brand Paperchase.
However, the firm sadly went into administration at the start of last year.
At its peak, Clinton’s had 2,500 staff working across 335 shops.
OTHER RETAILERS CLOSING STORES
Other retailers have been slimming down their number of high street branches, such as Iceland, Boots and Matalan.
Argos also closed 42 UK shops, including all 34 of its branches in the Republic of Ireland last June.
A combination of rising rent and cost of living has created the perfect storm for retailers and many have been unable to survive.
Several big retailers have fallen into administration including Wilko, Paperchase, and most recently The Body Shop.
The Body Shop collapsed into administration on February 13, then putting its almost 198 branches at risk of closure.
Since then it has closed down 42 locations and announced that 21 branches will be closed down this week.
Why are retailers closing stores?
RETAILERS have been feeling the squeeze since the pandemic, while shoppers are cutting back on spending due to the soaring cost of living crisis.
High energy costs and a move to shopping online after the pandemic are also taking a toll, and many high street shops have struggled to keep going.
The high street has seen a whole raft of closures over the past year, and more are coming.
The number of jobs lost in British retail dropped last year, but 120,000 people still lost their employment, figures have suggested.
Figures from the Centre for Retail Research revealed that 10,494 shops closed for the last time during 2023, and 119,405 jobs were lost in the sector.
It was fewer shops than had been lost for several years, and a reduction from 151,641 jobs lost in 2022.
The centre’s director, Professor Joshua Bamfield, said the improvement is “less bad” than good.
Although there were some big-name losses from the high street, including Wilko, many large companies had already gone bust before 2022, the centre said, such as Topshop owner Arcadia, Jessops and Debenhams.
“The cost-of-living crisis, inflation and increases in interest rates have led many consumers to tighten their belts, reducing retail spend,” Prof Bamfield said.
“Retailers themselves have suffered increasing energy and occupancy costs, staff shortages and falling demand that have made rebuilding profits after extensive store closures during the pandemic exceptionally difficult.”
Alongside Wilko, which employed around 12,000 people when it collapsed, 2023’s biggest failures included Paperchase, Cath Kidston, Planet Organic and Tile Giant.
The Centre for Retail Research said most stores were closed because companies were trying to reorganise and cut costs rather than the business failing.
However, experts have warned there will likely be more failures this year as consumers keep their belts tight and borrowing costs soar for businesses.
The Body Shop and Ted Baker are the biggest names to have already collapsed into administration this year.
IT’S NOT ALL BAD NEWS
Several major retailers are also expanding their presence on UK high streets.
Aldi has announced that it will open 35 new UK stores.
The openings form part of Aldi‘s long-term target of 1,500 stores in the UK.
The supermarket is set to invest £550million in expanding its UK footprint this year alone.
Aldi said that each new store opening will create around 40 new jobs on average.
Asda has been opening hundreds of convenience stores in recent months as it looks to rival major players Tesco and Sainsbury’s.
B&M plans to open “not less than” 45 brand new stores across the UK in each of the next two consecutive years.
The parent company of Bonmarché, Edinburgh Woollen Mill (EWM) and Peacocks, Purepay Retail Limited, has said it wants to open 100 new high street stores over the next 18 months.
It has yet to give the exact locations where it will open the 100 stores or when they will open.
One of the UK’s favourite bakery chain, Greggs, has exclusively revealed to The Sun plans to open more outlet branches by the end of 2025.
Home Bargains, which was running just under 600 branches as of last June, has said it wants to “eventually have between 800 and 1,000 retail outlets open”.
The major discounter has stopped short of saying when it wants to reach the 1,000 store target however.
Primark is also opening new branches and investing and renovating more than a dozen of its existing shops.
Screwfix is set to open 40 new stores nationwide as its owner, Kingfisher, seeks to expand the DIY brand’s national presence.
The brand opened two new stores in March, and a further three new shops will open this month.
Tesco has revealed plans to open 70 more stores across the UK over the next year as part of major expansion plans.
WHSmith has turned its focus to the travel side of its business, with plans to open new sites in airports, railway stations and hospitals.
Lidl is also looking to open 12 new stores across the UK as it bids to raise £91million in funding from investors.