SHUTTERS DOWN
All the retailers shutting shops in February including Iceland, Farmfoods and Homesense
Shoppers will lose more favourites from the high street in 2025
AFTER a tough few years for retail more shops are set to shutter their doors in February.
Shoppers have faced a swathe of closures on their local high streets in recent years as many favourite chains closed branches.
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And with increases in employment costs set to bite in April it seems unlikely that 2025 will be any different.
Many retailers have warned that the increase to employer National Insurance rates will .
The news follows tough times on the high street with shops having recorded months of reduced footfall and less money landing in the tills as a result of the cost-of-living crisis.
People have naturally cut back on retail therapy as they have found they have less cash in their back pockets.
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The decline in spending along with high rents and costs, have already forced many chains to pursue restructuring plans and close locations.
Figures from the Centre for Retail Research revealed that 8,543 stores had closed by mid-November 2024 and more than 130,000 retail jobs had been lost.
This year has already seen some high profile names close stores including Monki and The Entertainer.
Of course, it's not all bad news. In some cases branches will be replaced with bigger and better shops.
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Retailers regularly open and close shops for a number of reasons - not just because they are struggling.
For example, they may have a store nearby that is performing better or it may be that they want to move to a spot that has higher footfall, such as a retail park.
Toys R Us and other brands that are making a comeback
Here are all the shops we know are shutting in February 2025.
WHSmith
Stationery retailer WHSmith will close stores in Basingstoke and Bournemouth in February 2025.
The Basingstoke shop will close for good on February 1, then two weeks later the Winton branch in Bournemouth will shut its doors, on February 15.
It comes after the retailer closed its Boscombe branch in the same town in June 2024.
WHSmith has shuttered 10 stores since March 2023, including sites in Manchester and Bicester.
The closures also have included branches in Somerset and Sale.
Despite these closures WHSmith has 1,400 UK stores and is on the expansion trail.
It had aimed to open 110 new shops in 2024 in airports, railway stations and hospitals.
More than 50 of them were in the US and 15 in the UK. The retailer also opened a series of Toys R Us concessions in its UK stores.
While still expanding, WHSmith had announced plans to cut costs of up to £10million, following a 4% drop in sales.
Sainsbury's
Supermarket giant Sainsbury's is to close its store in Stamford Hill, London, on February 1.
Sainsbury's confirmed it is closing down the store due to the landlord's plans to redevelop the site after the lease expires.
Earlier this year Sainsbury's also closed a supermarket in York, but it has said it is looking for a new site in the city.
The supermarket has also been closing standalone Argos stores, which form part of its estate, and replacing them with in-store concessions.
Despite the closures Sainsbury's continues to expand its portfolio and last year bought 10 Homebase stores.
Once all Homebase stores are closed, Sainsbury's will convert the units into new supermarkets.
The acquisition and refit programme is expected to cost Sainsbury's £130million.
Iceland
Iceland is pulling down the shutters permanently on its site in Welling, London, on February 1.
The Welling branch is one of a number of Iceland store closures announced for 2025.
A site in Borehamwood and another in Exeter permanently shut in January.
The latest closure means Iceland has shut more than 20 stores since the start of 2023.
But, it's not all bad news as the frozen foods specialist has plans to open 250 new shops under its Food Warehouse brand.
In fact, a spokesperson has said it will open 20 stores under both its Iceland and Food Warehouse concepts before the end of April.
Iceland first launched the Food Warehouse store concept in 2014, has opened more than 150 across the UK.
The shops are generally larger than traditional Iceland branches and typically found in retail parks instead of on the high street.
The Entertainer
Toy giant The Entertainer has confirmed plans to permanently shutter its branch in Croydon's Whitgift shopping centre.
Earlier this year it also closed its branch at the Cameron Toll shopping centre in Edinburgh.
In a post shared on social media, locals expressed their sadness at the toy store's departure.
One said: "What a derelict place Croydon High Street has become."
The store is closing ahead of the "proposed redevelopment of the Whitgift Shopping Centre".
Partridges
Grocer Partridges, which serves the royal family and A-List stars, is set to shut its branch in Sloane Square, Chelsea, after more than half a decade.
The shop will close on February 2 as its owners focus on "smaller and more sustainable shop formats across London".
The specialty food shop will be moving its business to a nearby branch in Gloucester Road, Kensington.
The Kensington outlet will be its only bricks and mortar site following the closure, but the grocer also has an online business.
Partridges has said it plans to open "smaller and more sustainable" shop formats in London.
Farmfoods
Farmfoods will close its store in the Calthorpe Centre, Banbury on February 2.
No reason has been given for the closure of the Oxfordshire site and despite hopes a replacement location would be announced, nothing has been confirmed.
It comes just a few months after another Farmfoods store closed its doors for good leaving loyal shoppers devastated.
The chain closed its Sutton branch in South London on October 5.
It was shuttered due to the landlord deciding to redevelop the site.
Farmfoods has over 300 locations across the UK and remains a favourite among bargain hunters.
Stores opening in 2025
Loungers
Restaurant chain Loungers is adding seven new Lounge sites to its portfolio of 277 restaurants across the UK over the next few months. In February it will open sites in Preston, Rayleigh and Workington.
Primark
Primark will continue to expand its UK estate with 2025 openings planned for Parkway, Newbury and Epsom.
The retailer has been expanding rapidly with a number of openings in 2024.
Holland and Barrett
Holland and Barrett has announced plans to open 50 stores in 2025. the expansion is expected to include standalone stores and instore concessions.
Homesense
Homesense will close its Salisbury branch during the week of February 24.
The homeware company is part of TJX International, which owns TK Maxx.
A spokesperson for the store told customers: "We look forward to welcoming you to TK Maxx Salisbury in Cross Keys Arcade, where you can continue to find high-quality, top-brand homeware, fashion, gifts, and children's wear at amazing value."
TKMaxx has 432 stores across the UK according to the latest financial accounts.
Lidl has reportedly submitted plans to take the vacant Homesense lot.
Matthews Shoes
Family-run store Matthews Shoes has announced it will close a site for good in February, after more than 30 years on the high street.
The store in Station Road, New Milton, will be shuttered while another in High Street, Christchurch, will remain open.
The store has launched a sale ahead of the closure.
Monki
H&M-owned fashion chain Monki will close its seven UK stores this year.
Those earmarked for closure include a site on London's Carnaby Street and Manchester's Arandale Centre.
H&M has said some of the stores could be merged with another of its fashion brands, Weekday.
The Scandinavian retail giant wants to blend the two brands together to make a one-stop shop that appeals to young shoppers.
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It shut its Newcastle store on January 2 and its Arndale branch on January 12, 2025.
Its Glasgow, Sheffield, Birmingham, Bristol and London stores will be closing too but it has yet to reveal when this will be.
Why are retailers closing stores?
RETAILERS have been feeling the squeeze since the pandemic, while shoppers are cutting back on spending due to the soaring cost of living crisis.
High energy costs and a move to shopping online after the pandemic are also taking a toll, and many high street shops have struggled to keep going.
However, additional costs have added further pain to an already struggling sector.
The British Retail Consortium has predicted that the Treasury's hike to employer NICs from April will cost the retail sector £2.3billion.
At the same time, the minimum wage will rise to £12.21 an hour from April, and the minimum wage for people aged 18-20 will rise to £10 an hour, an increase of £1.40.
The Centre for Retail Research (CRR) has also warned that around 17,350 retail sites are expected to shut down this year.
It comes on the back of a tough 2024 when 13,000 shops closed their doors for good, already a 28% increase on the previous year.
Professor Joshua Bamfield, 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."
It comes after almost 170,000 retail workers lost their jobs in 2024.
End-of-year figures compiled by the Centre for Retail Research showed the number of job losses spiked amid the collapse of major chains such as Homebase and Ted Baker.
It said its latest analysis showed that a total of 169,395 retail jobs were lost in the 2024 calendar year to date.
This was up 49,990 – an increase of 41.9% – compared with 2023.
It is the highest annual reading since more than 200,000 jobs were lost in 2020 in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic, which forced retailers to shut their stores during lockdowns.
The centre said 38 major retailers went into administration in 2024, including household names such as Lloyds Pharmacy, Homebase, The Body Shop, Carpetright and Ted Baker.
Around a third of all retail job losses in 2024, 33% or 55,914 in total, resulted from administrations.
Experts have said small high street shops could face a particularly challenging 2025 because of Budget tax and wage changes.
Professor Bamfield has warned of a bleak outlook for 2025, predicting that as many as 202,000 jobs could be lost in the sector.
"By increasing both the costs of running stores and the costs on each consumer's household it is highly likely that we will see retail job losses eclipse the height of the pandemic in 2020."
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