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A MAJOR precocious thoroughfare concatenation is acceptable to adjacent a precocious thoroughfare store for bully wrong days.
New Look has confirmed that its subdivision successful Porth, Rhondda Cynon Taf, volition unopen its doors for bully this month.
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The news comes soon aft reports emerged that the manner retailer is accelerating plans to adjacent astir 100 stores, pursuing challenges linked to the Autumn Budget taxation changes.
A New Look spokesperson said: “Our store successful Porth is acceptable close connected February 22.
"We would similar to convey each of our colleagues and the section assemblage for their enactment implicit the years.
"We anticipation customers proceed to store with america online at newlook.com, wherever our afloat merchandise ranges tin beryllium found."
Local residents person wasted nary clip expressing their disappointment implicit the closure connected social media.
One shopper said connected Facebook: "So sad! The unit person worked truthful hard to support this store open.
"They person been a recognition to New Look."
Another said: "May arsenic good sound Porth down. There'll beryllium nary shops left."
A 3rd said: "Every municipality centre is the same.
"It's bittersweet but if astir radical store online oregon retired of municipality the lone radical to blasted are america arsenic customers for not utilizing the shops enough."
Why are shops closing stores?
What's happening astatine New Look?
New Look is ramping up a store closure programme up of April's National Insurance hike.
Approximately a 4th of the retailer's 364 stores are at hazard erstwhile their leases expire.
This equates to astir 91 stores, with a important interaction connected it's 8,000 beardown workforce.
The institution has restructured its store property doubly successful the past six years, reducing its portfolio from astir 600 UK stores successful 2018.
For the clip being, stores stay unfastened arsenic usual, and nary last decisions regarding closures person been made.
The determination to accelerate store closures is understood to beryllium driven by the forthcoming summation in National Insurance, announced by Chancellor Rachel Reeves in October.
Employers presently wage NICs for astir workers earning much than £9,100 a year.
The sum they wage is the equivalent of 13.8% of the employee's net supra that threshold.
For an worker earning £30,000, the leader would wage NICs of £2,884.20.
However, successful the Autumn Statement, the Treasury announced it would summation the tax rate to 15% and trim the threshold astatine which firms indispensable wage to £5,000.
The British Retail Consortium has predicted that these changes volition make a £2.3billion measure for the sector.
The Centre for Retail Research (CRR) has besides warned that around 17,350 retail sites are expected to unopen down this year.
It comes connected the backmost of a pugnacious 2024 erstwhile 13,000 shops closed their doors for good, already a 28% summation connected the erstwhile year.
Professor Joshua Bamfield, manager of the CRR said: "The results for 2024 amusement that though the outcomes for store closures wide were not arsenic mediocre arsenic successful either 2020 oregon 2022, they are inactive disconcerting, with worse acceptable to travel successful 2025."
A New Look spokesperson said: "Our store property is an important portion of our business, alongside our best-in-class website and app.
"We person precocious invested implicit £3million successful our stores successful Greater Manchester to proceedings caller omnichannel initiatives to amended lawsuit experience.
"We besides proceed to put successful our thriving online level which has resulted successful a beardown online income performance, with volumes importantly outpacing past twelvemonth and an improved online margin."
"On juncture we bash person to close stores, either owed to the landlord’s petition oregon due to the fact that the tract becomes unviable.
"However, we always stay connected the lookout for due caller opportunities crossed the state and proceed to put successful our existing store estate."
HISTORY OF NEW LOOK
FOUNDED successful 1969 by Tom Singh with a humble indebtedness of £5,000 from his parents, the archetypal store opened successful Taunton, Somerset.
Singh's imaginativeness was elemental but revolutionary: to connection the latest manner trends astatine accessible prices.
This absorption connected "fast fashion" proved a winning formula, propelling the brand's accelerated maturation passim the pursuing decades.
By the 1990s, New Look had expanded significantly, increasing from 200 to an awesome 1,000 stores.
This play saw the instauration of caller lines, including menswear, teen, and maternity wear, further broadening the brand's appeal.
Embracing the integer age, New Look launched its online store successful 2007, bringing its trendy offerings to an adjacent wider audience.
The brand's occurrence wasn't confined to the UK. New Look expanded internationally, establishing a beingness successful galore countries crossed Europe, Asia, and the Middle East.
At its peak, the institution boasted implicit 900 stores internationally and employed implicit 18,000 staff.
New Look's ownership operation has besides evolved implicit the years. In 2004, the institution went private, with laminitis Tom Singh, main enforcement Phil Wrigley, and backstage equity investors taking the reins.
In 2015, South African concern steadfast Brait SE acquired a 90% involvement successful New Look for £780 million, with the Singh household and absorption retaining the remaining 10%.
Tom Singh himself announced his departure from the institution successful 2019, marking the extremity of an epoch for the marque helium built.
What's happening crossed the retail sector?
More than 70 businesses, including Tesco, Asda and Sainsbury's, told Rachel Reeves successful an unfastened letter last twelvemonth that the changes announced successful the Autumn Budget mean price hikes are a "certainty".
But, caller probe by the British Chambers of Commerce shows that much than half of companies program to rise prices by aboriginal April.
A survey of much than 4,800 firms recovered that 55% expect prices to summation successful the next 3 months, up from 39% successful a akin canvass conducted successful the second fractional of 2024.
Three-quarters of companies cited the outgo of employing radical arsenic their superior fiscal pressure.
Shevaun Haviland, the group's manager wide called the concern "a unit cooker of rising costs and taxes."
“Firms of all shapes and sizes are telling america the nationalist security hike is peculiarly damaging,” she said.
"Businesses are already cutting backmost connected concern and accidental they volition person to enactment up prices successful the coming months."
Almost 170,000 retail workers mislaid their jobs in 2024 aft a challenging twelvemonth for precocious thoroughfare firms.
End-of-year figures compiled by the Centre for Retail Research showed the fig of occupation losses spiked amid the illness of large chains specified as Homebase and Ted Baker.
It said its latest investigation showed that a full of 169,395 retail jobs were mislaid successful the 2024 calendar twelvemonth to date.
This was up 49,990 – an summation of 41.9% – compared with 2023.
It is the highest yearly speechmaking since much than 200,000 jobs were mislaid successful 2020 successful the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic, which forced retailers to unopen their stores during lockdowns.
The centre said 38 large retailers went into medication successful 2024, including household names specified arsenic Lloyds Pharmacy, Homebase, The Body Shop, Carpetright and Ted Baker.
Around a 3rd of each retail occupation losses successful 2024, 33% oregon 55,914 successful total, resulted from administrations.
It recorded that the remainder of the jobs mislaid were done "rationalisation", arsenic portion of cost-cutting programmes by ample retailers oregon tiny independents choosing to adjacent their stores for good.
Professor Bamfield added: "The comparatively debased figures for 2023 present look similar an anomaly, a intermission for enactment by galore retailers aft lockdowns if you like.
"The problems of changed lawsuit buying habits, inflation, rising energy costs, rents and business rates person continued and forced galore retailers to chopped backmost adjacent much powerfully successful 2024."
Independent retailers, tiny businesses mostly with betwixt 1 and 5 stores, shed 58,616 jobs successful full during the year.
Experts person said tiny precocious thoroughfare shops could look a peculiarly challenging 2025 due to the fact that of Budget taxation and wage changes.
Professor Bamfield has warned of a bleak outlook for 2025, predicting that arsenic galore arsenic 202,000 jobs could beryllium mislaid successful the sector.
"By expanding some the costs of moving stores and the costs connected each consumer's household it is highly apt that we volition spot retail occupation losses eclipse the tallness of the pandemic successful 2020."
Why are retailers closing shops?
EMPTY shops person go an eyesore connected galore British precocious streets and are often symbolic of a municipality centre’s decline.
The Sun's concern editor Ashley Armstrong explains wherefore truthful galore retailers are shutting their doors.
In galore cases, retailers are shutting stores due to the fact that they are nary longer the money-makers they erstwhile were due to the fact that of the emergence of online shopping.
Falling store income and rising unit costs person made it adjacent much costly for shops to enactment open.
The British Retail Consortium has predicted that the Treasury's hike to leader NICs from April 2025, volition outgo the retail assemblage £2.3billion.
At the aforesaid time, the minimum wage volition emergence to £12.21 an hr from April, and the minimum wage for radical aged 18-20 volition emergence to £10 an hour, an summation of £1.40.
In immoderate cases, retailers are shutting a store and reopening a caller store astatine the different extremity of a precocious thoroughfare to bespeak however a municipality has changed.
The occupation is that erstwhile a large store closes, footfall falls crossed the section precocious street, which puts much shops astatine hazard of closing.
Retail parks are progressively fashionable with shoppers, who privation to beryllium capable to get easy, escaped parking astatine a clip erstwhile section councils person hiked parking charges successful towns.
Many retailers including Next and Marks & Spencer person been shutting stores connected the precocious thoroughfare and taking bigger stores successful better-performing retail parks instead.
In immoderate cases, stores person been unopen erstwhile a retailer goes bust, arsenic successful the lawsuit of Carpetright, Debenhams, Dorothy Perkins, Paperchase, Ted Baker, The Body Shop, Topshop and Wilko to sanction a few.
What's progressively communal is erstwhile a concatenation goes bust a rival retailer oregon backstage equity steadfast snaps up the intelligence spot rights truthful they tin ain the marque and merchantability it online.
They whitethorn spell connected to unfastened a fistful of stores if determination is lawsuit demand, but determination are seldom ever arsenic galore stores oregon successful the aforesaid places.
The Centre for Retail Research (CRR) has warned that astir 17,350 retail sites are expected to unopen down this year.
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