Major supermarket chain with 900 branches to close another in weeks
A MAJOR supermarket chain with 900 branches is closing another of its stores in a matter of weeks.
Iceland is pulling down the shutters permanently on its site in Welling, London, in a fresh blow for shoppers.
A spokesperson for the frozen goods supermarket said the store would close on February 1.
They added: “Our store colleagues have entered into a consultation process and have been offered opportunities at surrounding stores where possible.”
Locals who rely on the Welling branch to pick up their weekly shopping have been left devastated after finding out it will shut.
Posting on Facebook, one said: “Iceland in Welling is closing for good in February. Another good store gone from our high street.”
Another commented: “We’ll have no bl**dy shops in Welling before long.”
A third disgruntled customer added: “Oh my goodness how the hell can the generation who can’t do online (shopping) with no family cope. It’s so sad.”
The Welling branch is one of a number of Iceland stores that have closed in the New Year.
A site in Borehamwood and another in Exeter permanently shut on Saturday.
The latest closure means Iceland has shut more than 20 stores since the start of 2023.
But, it’s not all bad news as the frozen foods specialist has plans to open 250 new Food Warehouses.
Last week, a spokesperson said it would open 20 Iceland and Food Warehouse stores before the end of April.
Retailers often close shops based on customer demand and trends, opening them in areas where they are likely to see more sales.
Chains sometimes close single stores due to a lease ending and them not wanting to renegotiate a new one, or an area being redeveloped.
Iceland first launched the Food Warehouse store concept in 2014, with over 150 currently running across the UK.
The shops are generally larger than traditional Iceland branches and typically found in retail parks instead of on the high street.
OTHER SHOP CLOSURES
Plenty of other retailers are closing stores across the high street as households lean more towards online shopping and amid high business rates.
Soaring inflation in recent years has also dented shoppers’ pockets.
The Centre for Retail Research’s latest analysis suggests 13,479 stores, the equivalent of 37 each day, shut for good in 2024.
Of those, 11,341 were independent shops while 2,138 were shut by larger retailers.
The data also showed over half the stores that closed last year were shut due to the store or retailer going through insolvency proceedings.
This is when formal measures are taken to deal with tackling a business‘s debt.
Retailers are shutting stores in 2025 too.
The Body Shop is pulling down the shutters on five branches on January 15 in Exeter, Plymouth, Horsham, Norwich and Sheffield.
Three other branches have already closed in Cambridge and Hove.
Stationer WHSmith is closing a branch in Bournemouth on January 15 while Monki has announced plans to shut seven stores this year.
The Entertainer is also closed its outlet branch in the Cameron Toll Shopping Centre, Edinburgh, on January 4.
All in all, the Centre for Retail Research estimates more stores will close this year than last.
It predicts around 17,350 sites to close for good, made up of around 14,660 independent shops.
But, like with Iceland, it’s not all doom and gloom across the sector and a number of retailers are opening branches across the UK.
A number of discounters are cashing in on shoppers’ squeezed pockets, including Aldi, B&M, Lidl and Home Bargains, by opening hundreds of shops between them.
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.
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