Full list of shops and brands making a comeback including 90s high street icons – is your favourite returning?
DELIGHTED shoppers will see iconic brands return to the high street including 90s favourites Toys R Us, Topshop and Cath Kidston.
It’s been a tough few years for the high street with many brands shuttering sites or disappearing altogether.
But, a number of big-name retailers have announced they will be returning to the high street, in a move that’s sure to delight shoppers.
Many of the brands including Toys R Us, Cath Kidston and M&Co are returning under new ownership having previously fallen into administration.
It has been a tough time for retailers since Covid and many have struggled.
The rising cost of living, expensive rents and lower footfall have all played a part in the demise of some of our much-loved high street names.
However, here is a full list of the much-loved brands making their return:
Cath Kidston
Fashion and homeware chain Cath Kidston will open its first new store next month as it returns to UK high streets.
Renowned for its charming floral designs and quirky vintage-style homeware, Cath Kidston had been a beloved fixture on the British high street since 1993.
However, the retailer crashed into administration last year and the last of its bricks-and-mortar stores closed in June 2023.
Next acquired the Cath Kidston brand, meaning people could continue to buy online and at the retailer’s stores.
Now it is due to open a new store on October 18 at Westfield White City, London.
Cath Kidston has teased the return on Instagram with images of the hoardings branded with its familiar florals.
In the post, it said: “Why yes. Yes, you guessed right.”
Topshop
Topshop could be making a dramatic comeback to the British high street in a welcome boost for fashion-lovers who mourned its loss.
Earlier this month ASOS announced plans to sell a 75% stake in the brand to Bestseller, a Danish retail group that owns Jack & Jones.
Bestseller, which is also ASOS’s largest investor, has around 2,800 retail stores in more than 30 countries.
Asos had bought Topshop out of administration for £265million in 2021.
As part of the £118million joint venture deal with Bestseller, ASOS will be relaunching Topshop.com as a standalone website.
However, in news that will thrill millennial shoppers, ASOS’s boss also suggested a return to bricks and mortar shops .
Ramos Calamonte said: “It is very early to say that there will be physical stores, but there is no question that they [Bestseller] have a big present presence on the high street.
“We think that they have a lot of potential.”
Industry rumours have suggested they have already started scoping out potential sites for Topshop’s revival, including London’s famous Carnaby Street.
Toys R Us
Toys R Us’ return to the UK high street has been been warmly welcomed by delighted fans.
Following a rapid roll out of concessions in the last year the iconic 90s toys retailer has announced it will launch in 23 more shops before Christmas.
The new stores are not standalone sites, but are “shop-in-shops” located inside WHSmith stores across the country.
Toys R Us was founded in 1957 by American businessman Charles P Lazarus.
It grew to 100 stores across the UK, but collapsed in 2018 and closed all branches.
Plans for a relaunch were announced in in October 2021 and the first store to open in a WHSmith branch was in York (Monks Cross retail park) on June 10 last year.
Managing director of WHSmith High Street, Sean Toal, said: “Nearly 40 years ago, Toys R Us first came to the UK, and we take great pride in being the steward of this much-loved brand in the UK.
“We’ve had queues around the block for many openings in the last year which tells you just how much people are loving seeing Toys R Us back again.”
M&Co
Fashion retailer M&Co closed all of its stores after collapsing into administration in 2022, but has now announced it will return to the high street.
A new store in Newton Mearns, Scotland, will be opening where a previous store was located before the brand fell into administration.
The store opening follows the troubled brand’s acquisition by AK Retail Holdings in May 2023.
Sandra McPherson, head of retail for M&Co stores, said: “We are thrilled to welcome back our loyal customers in-store.
“This expansion symbolises our commitment to bringing stores back to the high street and connecting with customers.”
M&Co fell into administration in December 2022.
Fellow retailer Yours Clothing bought the M&Co brand and intellectual property the following year.
Wilko
Wilko is back on the high street having closed 400 stores in 2023 after going into administration.
Brits were heartbroken when beloved Wilko announced it would be closing all of its shops back in October last year.
However, a glimmer of hope was given when the brand name was scooped up by The Range, in a £5million deal – meaning that the name would live on.
Customers were overjoyed after learning the store was being relaunched online, and even more so when in a surprising turn of events, physical branches started to open up again.
Locations have since popped up Plymouth, Exeter, Luton, St Albans and Rotherham and its roll out is spreading across England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.
The stores offer customers all the essentials across home and garden, as well as the usual value Wilko own-brand products, alongside popular named brands.
Chris Dawson, owner of Wilko, is said to be targeting 300 stores over the next five years, and said that all the new shops so far are making a profit.
Paperchase
In October 2023, Paperchase also made a return after closing all of its 134 shops and concessions earlier in the year.
Fans of the brand were devastated when the retailer disappeared from the high street in April 2023.
It had collapsed three months earlier after failing to find a buyer for the business.
Doors were shut on a total of 106 standalone shops, and 28 concessions within Next and Selfridges stores.
However, supermarket giant Tesco later stepped in and bought the rights to the brand and then went on to launch it in some of its stores.
A total of 261 Tesco stores now stock Paperchase products – see the full list here.
Ted Baker
Ted Baker is to operate as an online shop following its collapse.
Ted Baker fell into administration in March when a deal collapsed between its American owners, Authentic Brands, and a Dutch operating partner which was meant to run the store operations.
Its final UK high street shops shut their doors in August and its original website stopped accepting orders.
But later that month US-based Authentic Brand Group, said it had secured a deal with a new business partner United Legwear & Apparel Co.
They will now run the brand’s online platform in the UK and Europe.
We wait to see if it will follow others in returning to the high street.
What is happening to the British high street?
The news comes amid a challenging time for the whole of the UK’s retail sector.
High inflation coupled with a squeeze on consumers’ finances has meant people have less money to spend in the shops.
Also the rising popularity in online shopping has meant people are favouring digital ordering over visiting a physical store.
Unseasonably wet weather has also deterred shoppers from hitting the high street.
This ongoing issue has seen brands such as Paperchase, and The Body Shop enter administration.
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.
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