A BELOVED family run bakery has abruptly ceased trading as price increases continue to bite small businesses.
Butter Wouldn’t Melt in Warrington, Cheshire has told sweet-toothed fans that it will not be renewing its lease.
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For years, the eatery has been serving up tasty cakes, brunches and lunches.
But the owners have devastated fans with a post uploaded to Instagram.
However, the bakery will still be taking online orders and urged locals to stay tuned for any future updates.
The unit is now available to lease and it is listed on Zoopla for £16,000 per annum.
Other closures
Plenty of other retailers are closing stores across the country’s high streets as households lean towards online shopping.
Businesses have also been impacted by high business rates and cost pressures and are anticipating a dramatic increase in employment costs from April.
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.
Fashion chain Monki, owned by H&M, has announced it will close all of its high street stores with one in Arndale, Manchester having shut this year.
The Body Shop has pulled down the shutters on five branches in Exeter, Plymouth, Horsham, Norwich and Sheffield.
Three other branches have already closed in Cambridge and Hove.
Stationer WHSmith shuttered a branch in Bournemouth.
The Entertainer, which has 160 branches across the UK, has also confirmed it will permanently shutter its branch in Croydon’s Whitgift shopping centre.
And, Menkind, which sells everything from toys to technology, will close down its branch in Kingfisher shopping centre in Redditch just three months after opening.
All in all, the Centre for Retail Research estimates more stores will close this year than last.
It predicts around 17,350 sites could close for good, made up of around 14,660 independent shops.
Recent years have already seen huge numbers of closures in towns.
For example, Homebase crashed into administration in November, but it was partially rescued by billionaire Chris Dawson who owns The Range and Wilko.
He is looking to retain up to 70 stores and save 1,600 jobs, however, closing down sales are appearing in stores all across the country.
To find out if a Homebase is closing near you, go on the retailer’s website and use the store locator.
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.”
