CENTRAL Co-op is set to close 19 food stores over the next six months – we reveal the full list of affected branches.
The independent retailer, separate from The Co-operative Group, said the 19 shops had been “financially unsustainable for some time”.
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The move comes as part of a wider round of closures across the business which will also see six funeral homes shut.
Central Co-op has invested £40million in its food stores and funeral homes since the start of the year.
By the end of 2024, the retailer will have opened five new stores, and refurbished 35 shops and 16 funeral homes.
However, it said inflation had seen a drop off in food sales and with death rates declining, trading profit was “more challenging” than in previous years.
Debbie Robinson, chief executive at Central Co-op, said: “We’re committed to putting the welfare of our colleagues first when making these tough choices.
“Any decision to sell or close our stores follows an extensive period of careful appraisal, and enables the Society to redirect resources into future growth and further improvements across the business for our Members, customers and colleagues.”
The 19 stores closing in the next six months are based in various locations around central England, including Kettering, Leicester and Cromer.
This is the full list of branches:
- Barnby Dun, High Street – South Yorkshire
- Broughton, High St – Northamptonshire
- Croft, Pochin Street – Leicestershire
- Desborough, Hill Top, Braybrooke Road – Northamptonshire
- Dudley, Overfield Road – West Midlands
- Eastwood, Nottingham Road – Nottinghamshire
- Enderby, Mill Lane – Leicestershire
- Kingstanding, Hawthorn Road – West Midlands
- Leicester, Evington Rd – Leicestershire
- Leicester, Narborough Rd – Leicestershire
- Narborough, Station Road – Leicestershire
- Peterborough, Mayors Walk – Cambridgeshire
- Sprowston, Chartwell Road – Norfolk
- Stafford, Baswich Lane – Staffordshire
- Wigston, Blaby Road – Leicestershire
- Yardley, Stoney Lane – West Midlands
- Cromer, Middlebrook Way – Norfolk
- Erdington, High Street – West Midlands
- Shepshed, Hallcroft – Leicestershire
It’s not all bad news for the stores though, as they will reopen under new ownership.
B&M has bought three of the 19 stores, while Samy Ltd, a convenience retailer, has snapped up 16.
Central Co-op said it was “confident” staff working at the 19 stores would be able to take on new roles under new ownership.
The latest closures from Central Co-op come after it sold its store in Atherstone, Coventry, to Tesco last September.
Three further branches were sold to Tesco, closing the following month.
OTHER STORE CLOSURES
It’s not just Central Co-op closing stores across the UK.
Figures from the Centre for Retail Research revealed 10,500 shops closed for good in 2023, with 119,000 jobs lost over the same period.
WHSmith has closed eight branches since March 2023, including in Manchester and Bicester, as it looks to expand into the travel sector.
The stationer said in January it wants to open 15 new locations at airports and train stations before the end of the year.
Plenty of other chains are shuttering stores this month too.
Decathlon closed its branch in Forge Retail Park, Telford, Shropshire, on November 3 while Co-op is shutting its store in Meadows, Nottingham in just days.
Posh retailer M&S is shutting a store in Queensway, Crawley, on November 16 while House of Fraser is pulling down the shutters on a store in Bluewater, Kent, on November 27.
Like with Central Co-op, it’s not all bad news though and a number of retailers are bucking the trend and opening stores.
Iconic 90s toy retailer Toys R Us is opening 23 new shops before Christmas while Mountain Warehouse is pulling up the shutters on new stores.
Lidl and Aldi have both said they want to open more branches across the UK before the end of the year too.
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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