Iconic high street chain to close 17 shops with ‘everything must go’ sales launched and days left for one branch
AN iconic high street chain is set to shut a total of 17 shops over the coming months, with one closing in a matter of days.
WHSmith has been announcing the closures over the past few months.
The retail brand, which runs over 1,100 stores, has closed dozens of stores since 2023, with more to come over the next few months.
All of the closures are spread across the country and will be shutting between now and May.
It comes after the chain confirmed in November that WHSmith has no plans to expand its presence on the high street and will instead continue to close up to 20 stores each year over the next three.
Although the chain also plans to open 90 sites over the next three years.
Two of the sites closed just yesterday after holding big closing down sales.
WHSmith on Bournemouth high street offered shoppers the chance to snap up discounts of up to 50% off before it shut forever.
The newsagent and stationery giant’s last day of trade was January 18.
Locals were quick to share their devastation when the news was announced.
One said: “Another shop closing so sad to see this.”
While a second added: “Another one bites the dust here in Bournemouth it’s almost a ghost town.”
A spokesperson for WHSmith told The Sun it was “disappointed” to be closing the branch on Old Christchurch Road but it was “no longer sustainable” to trade from the location.
Another site shut its doors for the last time in Luton.
The Luton Point shopping centre store was described by the retailer as “no longer sustainable to continue to trade from”.
WHSmith said staff would be supported and redeployed to nearby stores where possible.
A third site is also earmarked for closure in January too.
The shop in the town of March, Cambridgeshire will shut its doors on January 25.
More than 20,000 residents in the area will lose out on access to the WHSmith branch when it shuts its doors for the final time.
Many people took to Facebook to express their frustration with the closure and the state of the town’s high street.
One user said: “I knew this would happen. God, our high street is dying…all That work seems like such a massive waste.
“And on top of that, more jobs going. I hope all the staff find work ASAP.”
Once closed, the nearest WHSmith branch available to locals will be in Wisbech, Ely and Peterborough among other areas.
Not only that but another five branches will shutter in February, followed by one in March.
A further five WHSmith stores will close their doors in April, then two in May.
A single site in Orpington is expected to shut in the next few months, although no date has been given yet.
Several of the shops that will be shutting their doors have launched “everything-must-go” sales so if one is closing in your area it may be worth checking for some bargains.
Here is the full list of WHSmith closures taking place in 2025 so far:
- Bournemouth Old Christchurch Road, Dorset – January 18
- Luton, Bedfordshire – January 18
- March, Cambridgeshire – January 25
- Basingstoke, Hampshire – February 1
- Newtown, Powys – February 15
- Winton branch in Bournemouth, Dorset – February 15
- Rhyl, Denbighshire – February 15
- Bolton, Greater Manchester – February
- Accrington, Lancashire – March 15
- Halstead, Essex – April
- Halesowen, West Midlands – April
- Diss, Norfolk – April
- Newport, Isle of Wight – April
- Haverhill, Suffolk – April 26
- Stockton, County Durham – May
- Oldham, Greater Manchester – May
- Orpington, Greater London – no date given yet
RETAIL PAIN IN 2025
The British Retail Consortium has predicted that the Treasury's hike to employer NICs will cost the retail sector £2.3billion.
Research by the British Chambers of Commerce shows that more than half of companies plan to raise prices by early April.
A survey of more than 4,800 firms found that 55% expect prices to increase in the next three months, up from 39% in a similar poll conducted in the latter half of 2024.
Three-quarters of companies cited the cost of employing people as their primary financial pressure.
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.”
Professor Bamfield has also 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.”
Which stores have already closed?
Over the past two years, WHSmith has shuttered 10 stores, including locations in Manchester, Bicester, Somerset, and Sale.
In June 2023, WHSmith confirmed it would not be opening any more high street branches in a blow for shoppers.
The retailer said opening more high street stores would “just be a duplication”.
It added it intended to focus on expanding its portfolio outside the sector.
Here’s the full list of stores which have closed over the past few years:
- Crewe, Cheshire – March, 2023
- Newcastle-under-Lyme, Staffordshire – March, 2023
- Bicester, Oxfordshire – August, 2023
- Manchester – December 2, 2023
- Alfreton, Derbyshire – January, 2024
- Ramsgate, Kent – January, 2024
- Oban, Argyll and Bute, Scotland – February, 2024
- Nantwich, South Cheshire – February, 2024
- Margate, Kent – April 20, 2024
- Sale, Manchester – September 2024
- Bournemouth – October, 2024
Despite the closures, WHSmith still operates over 1,100 stores across the UK and remains focused on its expansion plans.
The retailer announced the opening of 110 new shops in 2024, with 15 in the UK and over 50 in the US.
Many of these new outlets are located in airports, railway stations, and hospitals.
WHSmith has also introduced a series of Toys R Us concessions in its UK stores, part of its strategy to adapt to evolving market trends.
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