A POPULAR high street chain with more than 200 stores is set to shut another sit in fresh blow to shoppers.
Bonmarche is closing its store in Hemel Hempstead, Hertfordshire in July.
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This announcement follows the closure of another branch at Armstrong’s Mill in Derbyshire, which ceased trading on March 1.
A spokesperson for Bonmarche said: “As part of an upgrade programme we are closing our store in Hemel Hempstead but actively looking at new locations.
“We are so grateful to our loyal customers in Hertfordshire and encourage them to visit our wonderful local stores at Watford, which opened recently, as well as Tring Garden Centre and Luton.
“In March we were lucky enough to have Lorraine Kelly come to mark the opening of our newest store in High Wycombe, which is also just up the road.”
Shoppers have taken to social media to air their frustration about the closure.
One shopper said on Facebook: “Where the hell are we supposed to buy our clothes now?”
Another said: “Hemel is a ghost town. Such a shame.”
A third added: “This will be a huge loss!”
It’s important to remember that retailers often open and close stores for a variety of reasons, and these decisions don’t necessarily reflect financial difficulties.
For instance, a retailer may choose to close a shop if there’s another nearby location that performs better, or they might relocate to a site with higher footfall, such as a busy retail park.
Alternatively, they may decide to shift their focus entirely to online operations.
Therefore, store closures alone are not always a reliable indicator of a business’s financial health.
Bonmarché was established in 1982 and was sold to the Peacock Group in July 2002.
In January 2012, just before Peacocks went into administration, Bonmarché was sold to private equity firm Sun European Partners.
In October 2019, Bonmarché itself went into administration but was soon saved by Edinburgh Woollen Mill.
In November 2020, the Edinburgh Woollen Mill Group entered administration, citing the impact of repeated store closures caused by the coronavirus pandemic.
In January 2021, Purepay Retail Limited purchased Edinburgh Woollen Mill and Bonmarché out of administration, followed by the acquisition of Peacocks in April 2021.
Bonmarché currently operates out of 225 UK stores.
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.
The British Retail Consortium has predicted that the Treasury’s hike to employer NICs from April 2025, 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.
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.
In some cases, stores have been shut when a retailer goes bust, as in the case of Carpetright, Debenhams, Dorothy Perkins, Paperchase, Ted Baker, The Body Shop, Topshop and Wilko 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.
The Centre for Retail Research (CRR) has warned that around 17,350 retail sites are expected to shut down this year.
Other shops leaving the high street
Beales, one of Britain’s oldest department stores, has launched a closing down sale before it shuts its last remaining shop after more than 140 years.
The company will shut its branch in Poole’s Dolphin Centre on May 31.
The sale includes fashion, furniture, gifts and cosmetics, being sold for up to 70% off.
Beales chief executive Tony Brown blamed the “devastating impact” of the rise in national insurance contributions and the higher minimum wage for the store closure.
Meanwhile, high street fashion chain New Look has begun to close stores as it scales back its UK footprint.
It is understood to be shutting nearly 100 stores – equivalent to around a quarter of its 364 shops.
Stores in Gateshead, Tyne and Wear, St Austell, Cornwall and Porth, Rhondda Cynon Taf have launched closing down sales.
Reports suggest that the company has been forced to accelerate the pace of store closures due to tax changes in the Autumn Budget.
Meanwhile, Huttons in London will shut its store in the Putney Exchange due to excessive energy costs.
The gift shop became a local icon after it opened in the 1990s.