AN ICONIC high street chain is set to close 10 shops with “everything must go” sales launched.
WHSmith will start pulling down the shutters on the branches within days with six shutting in April.
Two others will permanently close in May while another will shutter in July. One other branch will shut with no closure date confirmed.
It comes after WHSmith shut 10 branches across England and Wales already.
These are the stores that are closing over the coming months:
- Halstead, Essex – April
- Halesowen, West Midlands – April
- Diss, Norfolk– April
- Newport,Wales – April
- Haverhill, Suffolk– April 26
- Woolwich, London – April
- Stockton, County Durham – May
- Oldham, Greater Manchester – May
- Bedford – July
- Orpington, Greater London – no closure date confirmed
Shoppers have been left devastated after finding out their local branches will permanently shut in weeks.
Posting on Facebook about the Halstead closure, one local said: “Halstead has been ruined.”
Another added: “Very sad, Halstead was once a lovely little town.”
Commenting on the Woolwich closure, one shopper said: “RIP WHSmith.”
Another posted: “Yet another decent shop closes in Woolwich.”
Some of the WHSmith branches earmarked to shut over the coming months have launched closing down sales to shift remaining stock.
Pictures on Facebook show the Halesowen store is offering 30% off on books and stationery.
Meanwhile, the Stockton shop has also launched a 30% off clearance sale on a host of products.
OTHER WHSMITH NEWS
The closures come as WHSmith separately looks to offload 500 of its UK high street branches.
The retailer confirmed in January it was in negotiations with a number of prospective buyers for the sites.
A WHSmith spokeswoman told Flying Eze the retail group was “exploring potential strategic options for this profitable and cash generative part of the group, including a possible sale”.
However, the statement added: “There can be no certainty that any agreement will be reached, and further updates will be provided as and when appropriate.”
WHSmith stores that have already closed in 2025
- Bournemouth Old Christchurch Road, Dorset– January 18
- Luton, Bedfordshire – January 18
- March, Cambridgeshire– January 25
- Basingstoke, Hampshire– February 1
- Long Eaton – February 1
- Newtown, Powys– February 15
- Winton branch in Bournemouth, Dorset– February 15
- Rhyl, Denbighshire– February 15
- Bolton, Greater Manchester– February 15
- Accrington, Lancashire– March 15
Flying Eze exclusively revealedtwo days laterDoug Putman, the Canadian entrepreneur who rescued HMV frombankruptcyin 2019, was considering a swoop on the 500 branches.
Sources said it was hoped a deal could be reached within three months.
Other bidders could make an approach to buy the 500 stores though, including Alteri and Hilco.
It comes as WHSmith looks to move away from physical high street stores and towards opening airport and train station branches.
The stationer said last January it wanted to open 15 new shops in airports, railway stations and hospitals before the end of 2024.
This formed part of wider plans to open 110 new branches worldwide.
It also said in November it will close up to 20 stores each year over the next three years, the vast majority of which are on the high street.
At the end of this January, WHSmith published its results for the 21 week period to January 25, 2025, revealing it had continued to see its travel stores trade well, with revenue across North America stores up 3% like-for-like.
Carl Cowling, group chief executive, said the retail group had won a contract to open eight stores at Orlando airport and four more at Portland airport.
He added: “We now have a new store pipeline of c.60 stores in North America.
“The Group is in a strong position, and while there is some economic uncertainty, we are confident of another year of good growth in 2025.”
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.”
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