Popular chain announces shock closure of three more bars in latest shake-up
A POPULAR bar chain has closed three more sites in its latest shake up.
The New World Trading Company, which runs the Botanist bars, has closed sites in Coventry, Sheffield and Chester this month.
The latest round of closures follows the shuttering of three sites in October 2024.
The company has been undergoing a restructure after encountering difficulties and confirmed the bars were not profitable.
Those closed this month included two Botanist sites and a North Light bar in Chester.
The three closed last year were the Florist in Liverpool, the Botanist in Knutsford and the Botanist in Alderley Edge.
The bar operator also operates brands including the Oast House, and the Trading House.
In October 2024 New World Trading Centre agreed a Company Voluntary Arrangement (CVA), when it said it would refocus on its Botanist brand.
A CVA is a restructuring measure that lets businesses continue to trade whilst also closing stores and pushing through rent cuts.
The chain had experienced financial difficulties following the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, rising inflation and the cost-of-living crisis.
As well as closing sites the group has rebranded others and said it would open a new Botanist site in Bournemouth in May 2025.
It currently operates 24 sites under the Botanist brand.
In its last published accounts the New World Trading Company reported a pre-tax loss of £4.9million for the year to 31 March 2023.
The New World Trading Company is not the only bar group to have announced closures this year.
BrewDog announced started 2025 by axing six bars.
The shutters are coming down at three venues in Europe, one in China and another two in England.
Stonegate had also confirmed it will close The Bedford in Southampton city centre this month.
WHAT IS HAPPENING TO HOSPITALITY?
Many food and drink chains have been struggling recently as the cost of living has led to fewer people spending on eating out.
Businesses had been struggling to bounce back after the pandemic, only to be hit with soaring energy bills and inflation.
Multiple chains have been affected, resulting in big-name brands like Wetherspoons and Frankie & Benny’s closing branches.
Some chains have not survived, Byron Burger fell into administration last year, with owners saying it would result in the loss of over 200 jobs.
Pizza giant, Papa Johns announced it would be shutting down 43 of its stores this year.
Tasty, the owner of Wildwood, also shut sites as part of major restructuring plans.
This year has seen the announcing of further closures including from casual dining group Chipotle and an award-winning independent bistro in Merseyside.
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.
However, additional costs have added further pain to an already struggling sector.
The British Retail Consortium has predicted that the Treasury’s hike to employer NICs from April will cost the retail sector £2.3billion.
At the same time, the minimum wage will rise to £12.21 an hour from April, and the minimum wage for people aged 18-20 will rise to £10 an hour, an increase of £1.40.
The Centre for Retail Research (CRR) has also warned that around 17,350 retail sites are expected to shut down this year.
It comes on the back of a tough 2024 when 13,000 shops closed their doors for good, already a 28% increase on the previous year.
Professor Joshua Bamfield, director of the CRR said: “The results for 2024 show that although the outcomes for store closures overall were not as poor as in either 2020 or 2022, they are still disconcerting, with worse set to come in 2025.”
It comes after almost 170,000 retail workers lost their jobs in 2024.
End-of-year figures compiled by the Centre for Retail Research showed the number of job losses spiked amid the collapse of major chains such as Homebase and Ted Baker.
It said its latest analysis showed that a total of 169,395 retail jobs were lost in the 2024 calendar year to date.
This was up 49,990 – an increase of 41.9% – compared with 2023.
It is the highest annual reading since more than 200,000 jobs were lost in 2020 in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic, which forced retailers to shut their stores during lockdowns.
The centre said 38 major retailers went into administration in 2024, including household names such as Lloyds Pharmacy, Homebase, The Body Shop, Carpetright and Ted Baker.
Around a third of all retail job losses in 2024, 33% or 55,914 in total, resulted from administrations.
Experts have said small high street shops could face a particularly challenging 2025 because of Budget tax and wage changes.
Professor Bamfield has warned of a bleak outlook for 2025, predicting that as many as 202,000 jobs could be lost in the sector.
“By increasing both the costs of running stores and the costs on each consumer’s household it is highly likely that we will see retail job losses eclipse the height of the pandemic in 2020.”
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