Big retail chain with 160 stores abruptly shuts shop for good in blow to high street
A MAJOR retail chain with 160 stores has suddenly closed a high street shop for good in a major blow for a town centre.
The Vero Moda store in Fairgreen shopping centre in Carlow, Ireland, closed suddenly last weekend, according to reports from locals.
Writing on social media customers said there had been no warning ahead of the closure.
One said: “Gutted all the good shops are closing!!”
Another added: “In 10 years there will hardly be a shop to go into.”
A third said: “That was a good shop.”
Another added: “loved that shop!”
While a fifth said: “Very sad to see so many closing! There soon won’t be any shops left.”
In the last year the town has also lost a branch of New Look, as well as a 100-year-old drapery shop and a Claire’s Accessories store.
The Sun has contacted Vero Moda and asked why the store was shuttered.
European fashion label Vero Moda was founded in 1987 and has 16 stores in Ireland as well as many more across Europe.
The brand doesn’t have any standalone stores in the UK but its owner, Danish fashion business Heartland, purchased a majority stake in Topshop from Asos in a £135m deal last year.
It is thought the business, which also owns Jack & Jones, could now bring Topshop and Topman back to the high street.
Industry rumours have suggested they have already started scoping out potential sites for Topshop’s revival, including London’s famous Carnaby Street.
OTHER STORE CLOSURES
It’s common practice for larger-scale retailers to open and close branches based on customer demand and sales.
But bigger chains still shut thousands of stores between them in 2024, with more set to close in 2025.
The Centre for Retail Research found 2,138 shops were shut by larger chains last year.
Meanwhile, 11,341 independent stores were shut across the year.
The centre predicts 17,350 shops in total will close in 2025, linking the rise to hikes in employer National Insurance contributions and the national minimum wage.
Some retailers have warned products will rise in price to offset the added costs too, including M&S and Greggs.
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.”
Do you have a money problem that needs sorting? Get in touch by emailing money-sm@news.co.uk.
Plus, you can join our Sun Money Chats and Tips Facebook group to share your tips and stories