Stores are closing in a new blow for the high street – with some ‘within weeks’
High Street fashion retailer River Island is poised to shutter 32 stores across the country next month – with closure dates for 15 branches now confirmed. The embattled chain has negotiated reduced rental agreements on 71 premises as part of a rescue package aimed at avoiding administration.
The sweeping reorganisation will see 32 of its more than 200 stores close their doors during January, while 71 sites will secure rent reductions and a substantial chunk of debt will be wiped out. However, River Island shoppers will still have access to 122 branches, which remain untouched by the restructuring.
The firm has requested landlords slash rents for a three-year term and potentially suspend payments on some properties in an effort to cut losses, reports the Express.
A High Court Judge approved the proposal in August this year. Earlier this year, River Island chief executive Ben Lewis remarked: “We have a clear transformation strategy to ensure the long-term viability of the business, and this decision gives us a strong platform to deliver this.”
He continued: “Recent improvements in our fashion offer and shopping experience are starting to show results, and the restructuring plan will enable us to align our store estate to our customers’ needs. We are grateful to our suppliers, landlords and other stakeholders for their constructive engagement and shared confidence in River Island’s future.”
Matthew Weaver KC, representing River Island, told the hearing that the retailer “simply has not been able to reverse” its dire financial situation.
In his written submissions, he blamed declining customer numbers and sales on “the pressures of a highly competitive and changing retail environment as well as the prevailing trend away from high street retail stores to online shopping”.
He continued: “A number of geopolitical events have also resulted in continuing supply chain disruption which, together with energy, labour and other price increases, has resulted in a cost base that’s too high and unsustainable at its current level.”
River Island, which operates 223 stores throughout the UK and Ireland, will keep all its Irish locations open, Mr Weaver confirmed.
The retailer, which has around 5,500 employees, began trading in 1948 as Lewis and Chelsea Girl before rebranding in the 1980s.
Several of the affected stores are expected to run closing-down sales before shutting their doors for good.
But no specific start date for these sales has been announced yet.
Full list of River Island shops closing in January with 15 exact dates
- Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire – January 18
- Bangor Bloomfield, Northern Ireland
- Barnstaple, Devon – January 31
- Beckton, Greater London
- Brighton, East Sussex – January 18
- Burton-Upon-Trent, Derbyshire – January 18
- Cumbernauld, Scotland
- Didcot, Oxfordshire – January 31
- Edinburgh Princes Street, Scotland
- Falkirk, Scotland
- Gloucester, Gloucestershire – January 31
- Great Yarmouth
- Grimsby, Lincolnshire – January 31
- Hanley, Staffordshire
- Hartlepool, County Durham – January 24
- Hereford, Herefordshire – January 31
- Kilmarnock, Scotland
- Kirkcaldy, Scotland
- Leeds Birstall Park, West Yorkshire
- Lisburn, Northern Ireland
- Northwich, Cheshire – January 24
- Norwich, Norfolk
- Oxford, Oxfordshire
- Perth, Scotland
- Poole, Dorset – January 31
- Rochdale, Greater Manchester
- St Helens, Merseyside – January 24
- Surrey Quays, Greater London – January 18
- Sutton Coldfield, Warwickshire – January 18
- Taunton, Somerset
- Workington, Cumbria
- Wrexham, Wales – January 18