The year has gotten off to a busy start with several high-profile names, including Homebase and Tesco, shutting stores.
It appears March will be no different as major retailers prepare for the rise in employer National Insurance rates and minimum wage that come into force this April.
A taxing retail landscape coupled with Labour’s first fiscal Budget has been blamed for mass closures. The British Retail Consortium has projected that the Treasury’s boost in employer National Insurance Contributions alone will cost the retail sector £2.3 billion.
Meanwhile, the Centre for Retail Research forecasts that store closures will rise 30% to 17,350 over the next 12 months.
Dobbies Garden Centre is among those leading store closures this month, with fashion brand Select and outdoor retailer Trespass following suit.
High street stores closing in March
WHSmith
Shoppers in Accrington, Lancashire, are the latest to lose their local WHSmith brand as the store prepares to close its doors on March 15.
An expired lease prompted the upcoming closure, but the brand has been making big changes to its store portfolio elsewhere in the UK. WHSmith has recently shut stores in Bolton and two in Bournemouth, which closed within weeks of one another.
Further closures will occur in Essex, the West Midlands, Norfolk, Newport, and Suffolk as part of the stationery chain’s shakeup. It comes as part of plans to focus on its travel hubs rather than its iconic high street presence.
Branches that have already closed this year include:
- Bournemouth Old Christchurch Road, Dorset – January 18
- Luton, Bedfordshire – January 18
- March, Cambridgeshire – January 25
- Basingstoke, Hampshire – February 1
- Newtown, Powys – February 15
- Winton branch in Bournemouth, Dorset – February 15
- Rhyl, Denbighshire – February 15
- Bolton, Greater Manchester – February
Select Fashion
The popular black and white signage has become a rare sighting on British high streets, with just 48 stores left after mass closures following the brand entering administration in 2019.
A dozen more stores are set to close in February and March in the following locations:
- Merthyr Tydfil – March
- Wellingborough – March 15
- Southshields – TBC
- Peterlee – TBC
- Thornaby – TBC
- Hartlepool – TBC
- Scarborough – TBC
- Hull Hessle – TBC
- Hull St Stephens – TBC
- Ashington – TBC
- Scunthorpe – TBC
- Chippenham – TBC
Trespass
The brand will bid farewell to its store at Highcross Shopping Centre, Leicester, on March 31. Though the cause of its pending departure remains unknown, shoppers will find a closing-down sale in-store now, with items available for up to 60% off.
It follows the recent closure of another short-lived site at the Hillstree Shopping Centre, Middlesbrough, which launched a similar « everything must go » sale just two years after opening.
Greggs
The bakery chain will shutter a store in Cambridge at the end of the month on March 31. It is part of the estate strategy, and the chain will open more stores this year.
It already has over 2,500 shops across the UK, including 500 with franchise partners such as petrol stations. According to Greggs bosses, staff at the Cambridgeshire shop will be relocated to nearby branches where possible.
A Greggs store in Amersham, Buckinghamshire, closed for good on January 18, just weeks after a Greggs shop on Foleshill Road, Coventry, shut forever on January 4.
Dobbies
The garden centre has confirmed a fresh wave of closures across the UK this March. The closures come after the gardening specialist shut 16 stores as part of a restructuring plan in late 2024.
This round of closures impacts Havant, Aylesbury, and Northampton stores. Three sites will close over the coming months, including one in Northampton, which will be taken over by the family-run company British Garden Centres.
Action is expected to be completed by March, but closure dates for the Northampton and Aylesbury stores have not yet been confirmed.
At its peak, Dobbies was the biggest garden centre operator in the UK and had up to 77 stores.
