A MAJOR fashion chain with 105 stores will close more sites as 12 locations already face the chop.
Select Fashion will shutter a further three stores across Bristol and Nottinghamshire this year, marking the latest in a string of closures by the brand.
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The British fashion chain – owned by Turkish entrepreneur Cafer Mahiroğlu – fell into administration in 2019.
At the time, the retailer blamed tough conditions on the high street and was later bought out of administration by Genus UK Limited.
Recent filings on Companies House – the UK’s register of businesses – show Select Fashion entered into a Company Voluntary Arrangement (CVA) last summer.
A CVA is a way of restructuring that means a business can continue trading by negotiating its debts, such as cutting rent costs with landlords.
It is a common way for struggling businesses to try and stay afloat, with chains such as Caffe Nero and Body Shop having previously entered into one.
Now, a further two sites in Bristol city centre and a third in Worksop are braced for closure.
Bristol World detailed how branches in Broadmead and within Broadwalk Shopping Centre in Knowle have launched an “Everything Must Go” sale to help shift stock before both departures.
Elsewhere, a statement by Select Worksop was issued on social media stating that store would likely close on March 5.
The store has also launched a sale, knocking 25% off both sale and full price items.
One local shared their devastation over the news, writing under the announcement: “Feel so sorry for your shop. Its the only decent clothes shop left.”
The Sun has approached Select for comment.
It comes just weeks after The Sun revealed the affordable clothing and accessory retailer had plans to shutter a dozen stores across the UK.
Documents, previously seen by The Sun, detail how personnel were told a total of 12 stores would shutter across February and March.
The list of stores include:
- Southshields
- Peterlee
- Thornaby
- Hartlepool
- Scarborough
- Hull Hessle
- Hull St Stephens
- Ashington
- Scunthorpe
Select has already made a string of closures this month, including sites in Wolverhampton and Kidderminster.
These branches both closed at the start of January.
Its location in Scunthorpe was also marked for closure in January.
Select’s Merthyr Tydfil store in Wales will close in March along with the Wellingborough store on March 15.
The Wiltshire branch in Chippenham is also closing down.
These reports also follow a barrage of closures made by the bargain fashion store last year.
Bosses decided to call time on its Ipswich, Kent, and Cwmbran branches in 2024.
Select also closed its branch in the Erith Riverside Shopping Centre in London.
The bargain retailer, which has been on the high street for nearly four decades, has around 105 stores still up and running.
MORE SHOP CLOSURES
Plenty of other retailers are closing stores across the high street as households lean more towards online shopping and amid high business rates.
Soaring inflation in recent years has also dented shoppers’ pockets.
The Centre for Retail Research’s latest analysis suggests 13,479 stores, the equivalent of 37 each day, shut for good in 2024.
Of those, 11,341 were independent shops while 2,138 were shut by larger retailers.
The data also showed over half the stores that closed last year were shut due to the store or retailer going through insolvency proceedings.
This is when formal measures are taken to deal with tackling a business‘s debt.
Retailers are shutting stores in 2025 too.
DIY chain Homebase will close 33 stores this month following its administration.
Homebase fell into administration in November, with up to 70 of the struggling DIY chain’s branches bought by CDS Superstores, now trading as Wilko, The Range and Homebase.
But that left around 74 branches at risk of closure if no buyers could be found to take them on.
Teneo has confirmed 13 branches closed last month, including in London, Coventry and Bradford.
Now, the 33 shutting this month will take the full list of branches closing to 52, after six shut before the end of 2024.
Of the 74 sites put up for sale by Teneo, Sainsbury’s is expected to buy three more stores, after securing 10 earlier in 2024.
Last month, B&Q agreed to buy five branches. This suggests around four stores out of the list of 74 are at risk of closure still.
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.”
