WHSmith confirms another high street closure ahead of shutting nine shops in WEEKS
WHSMITH has confirmed it’s closing yet another of its high street shops in the latest blow to customers.
The retailer’s Doncaster branch, located inside the city’s Frenchgate shopping centre, will close for good on May 31.
It had been a long-standing part of Doncaster’s high street, having opened when the Frenchgate was first built in 1968.
The struggling chain has been looking to offload its 500 UK high street shops as it focuses instead on its more popular travel-focused outlets in airports and train stations.
On the latest closure, WHSmith told local news media: “We can confirm that the WHSmith store in Doncaster will be closing in May.
“It is no longer sustainable to continue to trade from this location and the decision has been taken to close the store as a result of the forthcoming lease expiry.
“We are disappointed to be losing our presence in Doncaster and we would like to thank all our customers for their support and for shopping with us.
“We are also extremely grateful for the commitment of our in-store colleagues who we will support with this transition and redeploy to nearby stores, where possible.”
It comes as WHSmith shut its Accrington, Lancashire, branch on Saturday due to its lease expiring.
In recent weeks it has also shut stores in Bolton, Bournemouth, Nottinghamshire and Boscombe.
The company said at the time it was disappointed to be pulling out of Bolton town centre.
Bosses said the store shut due to redevelopment plans.
The chain has also earmarked nine shops for closure over the next couple of months.
These include stores in Essex, the West Midlands, Norfolk, Newport and Suffolk.
Here is the full list of WHSmith closures that have either taken place or are due to in 2025 so far:
- Bournemouth Old Christchurch Road, Dorset – January 18
- Luton, Bedfordshire – January 18
- March, Cambridgeshire – January 25
- Basingstoke, Hampshire – February 1
- Long Eaton – 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, Wales – April
- Haverhill, Suffolk – April 26
- Woolwich – April
- Stockton, County Durham – May
- Oldham, Greater Manchester – May
- Orpington, Greater London – no date given yet
WHSmith has more than 1,100 stores across the UK, including over 520 high street shops.
The iconic chain has been serving customers since 1792.
But it has struggled to adapt to the changing high street climate and is now working with advisers at Greenhill Investment Boutique as it tries to offload its high street estate.
Investors have not wanted WHSmith to spend any more money on its high street arm, which has no real growth prospects.
Two rival groups are now gearing up to take over the retailer.
The first is Alteri, which owns Bensons for Beds and made headlines when it took control of Missguided in 2021.
The other company is Modella, which owns Hobbycraft and The Original Factory Shop.
Both firms are experts in acquiring and reviving struggling retailers.
It’s believed a deal will likely be announced when WHSmith’s interim results are revealed in April.
The Times reported previously that the sale of the stores will not include the rights to the WHSmith brand name – meaning the retailer as we know it is set to disappear from the high street.
Instead the shops will likely be operating under a new name and with different branding.
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.”