BASKET CASE
Supermarket to close 19 stores in ‘tough’ decision – but there’s good news for shoppers
Scroll down to find out what two retailers are buying the stores
A MAJOR supermarket chain is set to shut 19 "unsustainable" stores - but there's some good news for shoppers.
Central Co-op is offloading the almost 20 food stores in various locations across middle England.
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However, in a boost for shoppers the same branches are being sold to two retailers and will reopen under their brand names.
Three of the food stores will reopen as B&M branches, while the remaining 16 are being sold to Samy Limited.
The independent convenience chain currently runs 32 Budgens, Spar, Londis and Premier stores across the UK.
Central Co-op said the 19 branches had been "financially unsustainable for some time".
Read more on Store Closures
The retailer added it was confident staff at the 19 stores would be offered new roles as part of the sales process.
Debbie Robinson, chief executive officer, said: ";We’re committed to putting the welfare of our colleagues first when making these tough choices.
"Any decision to sell or close our stores follows an extensive period of careful appraisal, and enables the Society to redirect resources into future growth and further improvements across the business for our
Members, customers and colleagues."
Central Co-op is selling branches in Cromer, Norfolk, Erdington in the West Midlands and Shepshed in Leicestershire to B&M.
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Meanwhile, Samy's is buying stores in South Yorkshire, Staffordshire and Cambridgeshire.
All 19 shops will be shut within the next six months.
Toys R Us and other brands that are making a comeback
This is the full list of stores that will shut:
- Barnby Dun, High Street - South Yorkshire
- Broughton, High St – Northamptonshire
- Croft, Pochin Street – Leicestershire
- Desborough, Hill Top, Braybrooke Road – Northamptonshire
- Dudley, Overfield Road - West Midlands
- Eastwood, Nottingham Road – Nottinghamshire
- Enderby, Mill Lane – Leicestershire
- Kingstanding, Hawthorn Road - West Midlands
- Leicester, Evington Rd – Leicestershire
- Leicester, Narborough Rd – Leicestershire
- Narborough, Station Road – Leicestershire
- Peterborough, Mayors Walk – Cambridgeshire
- Sprowston, Chartwell Road – Norfolk
- Stafford, Baswich Lane – Staffordshire
- Wigston, Blaby Road – Leicestershire
- Yardley, Stoney Lane - West Midlands
- Cromer, Middlebrook Way – Norfolk
- Erdington, High Street - West Midlands
- Shepshed, Hallcroft – Leicestershire
Central Co-op inflation had impacted on food sales while slowing death rates had also forced it to announce the closure of six funeral homes.
However, this year, it has invested £40million into its food stores and funeral homes.
By the end of this year, it will have opened five new food stores, and refurbished a further 35.
The latest closures from Central Co-op come after it sold its store in Atherstone, Coventry, to Tesco last September.
Three further branches were sold to Tesco, closing the following month.
OTHER STORE CLOSURES
It's not just Central Co-op closing stores across the UK.
Figures from the Centre for Retail Research revealed 10,500 shops closed for good in 2023, with 119,000 jobs lost over the same period.
WHSmith has closed eight branches since March 2023, including in Manchester and Bicester, as it looks to expand into the travel sector.
The stationer said in January it wants to open 15 new locations at airports and train stations before the end of the year.
Plenty of other chains are shuttering stores this month too.
Decathlon closed its branch in Forge Retail Park, Telford, Shropshire, on November 3 while Co-op is shutting its store in Meadows, Nottingham in just days.
Posh retailer M&S is shutting a store in Queensway, Crawley, on November 16 while House of Fraser is pulling down the shutters on a store in Bluewater, Kent, on November 27.
Like with Central Co-op, it's not all bad news though and a number of retailers are bucking the trend and opening stores.
READ MORE SUN STORIES
Iconic 90s toy retailer Toys R Us is opening 23 new shops before Christmas while Mountain Warehouse is pulling up the shutters on new stores.
Lidl and Aldi have both said they want to open more branches across the UK before the end of the year too.
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. 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.
Boss Stuart Machin recently said that when it relocated a tired store in Chesterfield to a new big store in a retail park half a mile away, its sales in the area rose by 103 per cent.
In some cases, stores have been shut when a retailer goes bust, as in the case of Wilko, Debenhams Topshop, Dorothy Perkins and Paperchase 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.
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