Major beauty retailer to close ANOTHER city centre branch after trading for 34 years
A MAJOR beauty retailer is set to close another city centre branch after trading for 34 years.
The Body Shop store in Sheffield will shut for good in less than two weeks, bosses have announced.
It comes after the company went into administration last year, bringing 82 store closures and 800 job cuts.
It was then purchased by growth capital firm Aurea Group in September, who told The Sun it had no further plans to close any stores.
But last week, Tim Boaler, director of Powerfirm Limited, Body Shop Orchard Square, told The Star that the branch would be closing for good on January 15.
This followed an earlier statement in which a spokesperson confirmed that the site had been listed to let, adding: “Due to the current business uncertainty the team are exploring contingency measures.”
Tim said: “After 34 years in Orchard Square and the city of Sheffield, it is with great sadness that we have to announce the closure of our Body Shop store.
“This has been difficult news to manage, particularly for our tremendously loyal – and in many cases long serving staff – but also for our many loyal customers.”
The director then went on to personally namecheck two of the store’s longest running staff members – Jean Haigh, the branch’s manager of 20 years, and Dee Smith, who has worked there for 22 years.
Before The Body Shop went under last year, the company employed over 1,500 workers across the UK.
In February, administrators at FRP Advisory confirmed that the chain was up for auction after a restructuring plan was not deemed viable.
And just a few weeks later, the beauty retailer’s remaining 113 branches were purchased by Aurea.
At the time, a spokesperson for the firm told The Sun: “As with any business, particularly one that has ended up in administration, there is a need to manage costs but we believe that the stores are an important part of the brand’s connection to its customers.”
Other store closures
The Body Shop is not the only retailer that will close stores this month.
H&M-owned fashion chain Monki will shut two of its stores in the coming weeks.
Those set for closure are located at the Intu shopping centre in Newcastle Upon Tyne and in Manchester‘s Arndale Centre.
The Newcastle branch will shut up shop today while the Manchester branch will close on January 17.
H&M plans to close seven Monki stores as it merges the brand with trendy fashion chain Weekday.
Meanwhile, stationer WHSmith will close one of its stores in Bournemouth, Dorset this month.
The shop on Old Christchurch Road will pull down its shutters for the last time on January 18.
The book and stationary chain has closed ten stores since March 2023, including shops in Manchester and Somerset.
Coffee giant Starbucks is also set to close two of its cafes this month.
The popular American chain will shut its coffee house on Dumfries high street on January 12.
Meanwhile, the Starbucks branch inside the Cineworld at Sixfields Leisure will shut for good on January 19.
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.
The Sun’s business editor Ashley Armstrong explains why so many retailers are shutting their doors.
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. 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.
Boss Stuart Machin recently said that when it relocated a tired store in Chesterfield to a new big store in a retail park half a mile away, its sales in the area rose by 103 per cent.
In some cases, stores have been shut when a retailer goes bust, as in the case of Wilko, Debenhams Topshop, Dorothy Perkins and Paperchase 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.