A SUPERMARKET chain with over 900 stores across the UK has announced the closure of two more branches.
Iceland revealed plans to shut one store in June and the other in July.
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The College Square store in Margate will be the first to go after serving customers for the last decade.
The shutters will be pulled for the last time on June 21.
The reason behind the sudden closure has not yet been confirmed, but Iceland has said that staff working at the Margate branch will be offered jobs within the business.
An Iceland spokesperson said: “We can confirm our Margate Iceland store will close.
“Our store colleagues have entered into a consultation process and have been offered opportunities at surrounding stores where possible.”
One month later, the discount retailer will close its Inverness city centre supermarket at Rose Street Retail Park on July 12.
Local news reported that the decision was to allow the brand to concentrate on expanding its Food Warehouse outlets.
This includes Food Warehouse sites in Telford, which opened in November 2022.
An Iceland spokeswoman said: “We can confirm our Iceland store located at Rose Street, Inverness, is scheduled to close on July, 12.
“Our store colleagues will enter into a consultation process and will be offered opportunities at surrounding stores where possible.
“Shoppers can visit our local Food Warehouse store in Inverness, located on Telford Street, IV3 5LU.”
Customers at the Inverness store had complained about the parking charges and fines issued by a third-party car park operator, with even disabled shoppers among those hit by penalties, Press and Journal reports.
These parking concerns have been a sore point for many local shoppers, who say they’ve been put off returning to the store.
Iceland is best known for its frozen food range and exclusive products such as Cathedral City, Greggs, TGI Friday’s, and My Protein.
It has also made major investments in its delivery services, now available through its own website as well as platforms like Just Eat, Uber Eats, and Amazon, aiming to reach customers who prefer to shop from home.
The closure in Inverness is part of a broader reshuffle across Iceland’s UK operations, as the supermarket chain adapts to shifting consumer habits, cost pressures, and the growing demand for convenience and online shopping.
Other retailers have also been facing similar challenges, with many high street stores shutting or relocating to out-of-town retail parks.
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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