{"id":303631,"date":"2026-01-26T00:07:09","date_gmt":"2026-01-26T00:07:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/303631\/"},"modified":"2026-01-26T00:07:09","modified_gmt":"2026-01-26T00:07:09","slug":"major-fashion-retailer-shutting-down-12-shops-next-week-full-list-uk-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/303631\/","title":{"rendered":"Major fashion retailer shutting down 12 shops next week &#8211; full list | UK | News"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>A major fashion retailer is set to close a further 12 stores next week as part of a major restructuring plan. In August, <a data-link-tracking=\"InArticle|Link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.express.co.uk\/latest\/river-island\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">River Island<\/a> confirmed plans to pull down the shutters on 33 stores in a bid to avoid collapsing into administration.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The High Court-approved move came after the retailer revealed last year that it has seen a \u00a332.3million pre-tax loss a 19%-drop in sales. <a data-link-tracking=\"InArticle|Link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.express.co.uk\/latest\/river-island\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">River Island<\/a> blamed the downturn on rising costs and customers increasingly migrating towards online shopping. The plan also involves rent reductions and <a data-link-tracking=\"InArticle|Link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.express.co.uk\/latest\/debt\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">debt<\/a> being written off for 71 stores.<\/p>\n<p>It also reportedly axed 110 of the approximately 950 roles at its head office, a move that is estimated to have saved the chain \u00a38.1million.<\/p>\n<p>The chain currently some 220 stores across the UK, with about 5,500 employees. 120 of its stores are unaffected by the turnaround plans.<\/p>\n<p>Some of the branches in the wave of 33 have already closed, including six today (Saturday, January 24). These include:\u00a0<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Bangor Bloomfield<\/li>\n<li>Cumbernauld<\/li>\n<li>Hartlepool<\/li>\n<li>Kilmarnock<\/li>\n<li>Northwich<\/li>\n<li>St Helens<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>A dozen more stores will be leaving the high street next Saturday (January 31), the last of the restructure-related closures announced thus far. Among them are:\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>In a statement put out last year, ahead of the overhaul plan being put before creditors, River Island CEO Ben Lewis said the &#8220;well-documented migration of shoppers from the high street to online has left the business with a large portfolio of stores that is no longer aligned to our customers&#8217; needs&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The sharp rise in the cost of doing business over the last few years has only added to the financial burden,&#8221; he continued. &#8220;We have a clear strategy to transform the business to ensure its long-term viability.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Recent improvements in our fashion offer and in-store shopping experience are already showing very positive results,&#8221; Mr Lewis said at the time, &#8220;but it is only with a restructuring plan that we will be able to see this strategy through and secure River Island&#8217;s future as a profitable retail business&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We regret any job losses as a result of store closures, and we will try to keep these to a minimum.&#8221;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A major fashion retailer is set to close a further 12 stores next week as part of a&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":303632,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[73],"tags":[79,18,40694,149478,19,17,149477,3439,149476,83961,149479],"class_list":{"0":"post-303631","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-business","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-eire","10":"tag-high-street","11":"tag-high-street-retail-challenges","12":"tag-ie","13":"tag-ireland","14":"tag-restructuring-plan","15":"tag-retail","16":"tag-river-island","17":"tag-store-closures","18":"tag-uk-retail-industry"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/115958490288425248","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/303631","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=303631"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/303631\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/303632"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=303631"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=303631"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=303631"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}