A BELOVED charity with 750 shops across the UK is set to close a popular branch for good.
TheBritish Heart Foundation'sstore inside Middleton Grange Shopping Centre in Teeside is set to close after waving in punters for three decades.
Bosses decided to pull the plug after profits dwindled.
Martin Newton, area manager at the British Heart Foundation, revealed that the lease on thestore had ended and the shop pulled down the shutters last weekend.
He added: “It's crucial to our lifesaving work that all of our shops are profitable to allow us to help as many people as possible who are living with heart and circulatory disease.
“A combination of factors meant that sadly this wasn't the case with our Hartlepool shop, and we took the difficult decision not to renew the lease.
“Our nearby home store, which is also located in Middleton Grange will be delighted to welcome customers old and new or you can shop online on our eBay store.
“The store is also accepting quality donations of clothing as well as furniture so please consider donating if you can.
“The nearest BHF fashion stores are atBillinghamand Durham.
“We would like to thank our wonderful staff, volunteers, customers and donors for all their amazing support over the years.”
Other shops leaving the high street
Beales, one of Britain's oldest department stores, has launched a closing down sale before it shuts its last remaining shopafter more than 140 years.
The company will shut its branch in Poole's Dolphin Centre on May 31.
The sale includes fashion, furniture, gifts and cosmetics, being sold for up to 70% off.
Beales chief executive Tony Brown blamed the “devastating impact” of the rise in national insurance contributions and the higher minimum wage for the store closure.
Meanwhile, high street fashion chain New Look has begun to close stores as it scales back its UK footprint.
It is understood to be shutting nearly 100 stores – equivalent to around a quarter of its 364 shops.
Stores in Gateshead, Tyne and Wear, St Austell, Cornwall and Porth, Rhondda Cynon Taf have launched closing down sales.
Reports suggest that the company has been forced to accelerate the pace ofstore closuresdue totaxchanges in theAutumn Budget.
Meanwhile, Huttons in London will shut its store in the Putney Exchange due to excessive energy costs.
The gift shop became a local icon after it opened in the 1990s.
And ahead of today's NationalInsurancehike,New Lookhas ramped up a store closure programme.
Approximately a quarter of the retailer's 364 stores are at risk when their leases expire.
This equates to about 91 stores, with a significant impact on its 8,000-strong workforce.
If you want to keep up to date with store closures happening in your town you can keep an eye on local Facebook groups.
Branches usually host closing down sales – which you won't want to miss.
RETAIL PAIN IN 2025
The British Retail Consortium has predicted that the Treasury's hike to employer NICs will cost the retail sector £2.3billion.
Research by the British Chambers of Commerce shows that more than halfofcompanies plan to raise prices by early April.
A survey of more than 4,800 firms found that 55% expect prices to increase in the next three months, up from 39% in a similar poll conducted in the latter half of 2024.
Three-quarters of companies cited 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.
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, withworse set to come in 2025.”
Professor Bamfield has also 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.”
