A major high street is set to close multiple stores this month in a blow to the economy. WHSmith is shutting down 17 locations in 2025, with some sites having already closed down for good.
Store closures have become the norm in recent years due to changing consumer behaviour, falling customer footfall and inflationary pressures with WHSmith being among the casualties.
Currently, the book and stationery seller operates more than over 1,100 stores across the UK, with many locations being based in high streets, airports, railway stations and in motorway services.
Since 2013, WHSmith has shut down dozens of stores with more to cease operating over the next couple of months. These latest round of closures are expected to last until May.
In November 2023, the brand confirmed it will be shutting down up to 20 stores annually over the next three years. However, the chain plans to open 90 stores in different locations over the same period.
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WHSmith is closing multiple stores in 2025
PA
Here is a full list of the WHSmith stores earmarked for closure in 2025:
- 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
- Accrington, Lancashire – March 15
- Halstead, Essex – April
- Halesowen, West Midlands – April
- Diss, Norfolk – April
- Newport, Wales – April
- Haverhill, Suffolk – April 26
- Stockton, County Durham – May
- Oldham, Greater Manchester – May
- Orpington, Greater London – TBD
Britain’s high streets have been hit by a wave of store closures
PA
According to research conducted by PwC, nearly 7,000 high street stores left British high streets left British high streets in the first half of 2024. Some 6,945 shops shut down for good, the equivalent to 38 shops per day.
The firm noted this represents a slight increase in the closure rate compared to the first six months of the year, which saw 36 stores closed each day. However, openings also grew slightly over the period, a jump from 24 to 25 per day.
In its report, PwC stated “While the uplift in both openings and closures means slightly more churn, it does signal some level of stability for shop vacancies when we look back over the last three years; the net decline has stayed around the one per cent mark every six months, suggesting a slow but steady decline in physical outlets as consumers increasingly undertake more transactions online, whether that’s shopping or other service transactions like banking.
“In fact, retail chain store closures almost exactly mirror the decline of in-store shopping and the corresponding rise of online retail sales, something we noted in the 2023 full year data.
Retailers have warned of potentially more store closures and job losses as a result of tax raids confirmed by Chancellor Rachel Reeves in her Autumn Budget last year.
During her fiscal statement, Reeves announced that the National Insurance (NI) rate paid by employers will rise from 13.8 per cent from 15 per cent from April 2025 in effort to generate money for the Treasury.
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Reeves is under fire for raising National Insurance on employers last year PABased on research conducted by the British Retail Consortium (BRC)British Retail Consortium (BRC), the Chancellor’s decision to hike employer NICs will cost the retail sector £2.3billion.
Furthermore, the British Chambers of Commerce reports that more than half of companies plan to raise prices by early April.
In a survey of around 4,800 firms, 55 per cent of business polled shared they expect prices to increase in the next three months, up from 39 per cent in a similar poll conducted in the second half of last year.
Around three-quarters of companies blamed the cost of employing people as their primary financial pressure.
The Centre for Retail Research (CRR) has also warned that around 17,350 retail sites are expected to shut down this year.
Professor Joshua Bamfield, the director of the CRR said: “The results for 2024 show that although the outcomes for store closures overall were not as poor as in either 2020 or 2022, they are still disconcerting, with worse set to come in 2025.”
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