AN ICONIC retailer with 1,100 stores across the UK has closed one of its major branches for good – leaving fans in tears.
The closure comes as the retailer struggles to adapt to shifting shopping behaviours and mounting economic pressures.
WHSmith’s branch in Bolton’s Crompton Place has shut its doors for good on Saturday, 15 February.
The well-loved store is said to have closed due to redevelopment plans, according to company officials.
A spokesperson for the retailer said: “We are disappointed to be losing our presence in Bolton and we would like to thank all our customers for their support and for shopping with us.”
Due to the closure, the stock of the store has been reduced to 75 per cent discount.
A member of staff Aaron Highet said: “It has been such a good experience and I’ve enjoyed my time here.
“The customers come in with a smile and want to chat. The staff have been lovely and are brilliant to get on with.”
Another shopper Wendy told the Bolton News: “I’m very sad about the closure. I have been coming here for decades to browse the magazines, books and pens.”
Store manager Sara Goldthorpe said: “We have had a lot of customers say they are disappointed about the closure.
“Lots of them come in to use their National Book Tokens and with World Book Day coming up, they will have to go to another branch.”
This follows the recent closure of two other locations in the area, on Old Christchurch Road and in Boscombe.
WHSmith is also set to close its Newtown branch in Powys, bringing an end to nearly a century of serving the local community in the town centre.
A further nine WHSmith sites will close before the end of the first two financial quarters in:
- 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 – no date given
Which stores have already closed?
Over the past two years, WHSmith has shuttered 15 stores, including locations in Manchester, Bicester, Somerset, and Sale.
In June 2023, WHSmith confirmed it would not be opening any more high street branches in a blow for shoppers.
The retailer said opening more high street stores would “just be a duplication”.
It added it intended to focus on expanding its portfolio outside the sector.
Here’s the full list of stores which have closed over the past few years:
- Crewe, Cheshire – March, 2023
- Newcastle-under-Lyme, Staffordshire – March, 2023
- Bicester, Oxfordshire – August, 2023
- Manchester – December 2, 2023
- Alfreton, Derbyshire – January, 2024
- Ramsgate, Kent – January, 2024
- Oban, Argyll and Bute, Scotland – February, 2024
- Nantwich, South Cheshire – February, 2024
- Margate, Kent – April 20, 2024
- Sale, Manchester – September 2024
- Bournemouth – October, 2024
- Bournemouth Old Christchurch Road, Dorset – January 18, 2025
- Luton, Bedfordshire – January 18, 2025
- March, Cambridgeshire – January 25, 2025
- Basingstoke, Hampshire – February 1, 2025
What else is happening at WHSmith?
The retailer is actively seeking to offload its entire high street estate in order to focus on its fast-growing travel business of shops in airports and train stations.
WHSmith is working with advisers at Greenhill Investment Boutique.
It is hoped that a deal can be reached within three months, according to sources.
Potential buyers circling the retailer, which opened its first London shop over 200 years ago, include retail turnaround specialists Hilco and Alteri, along with Doug Putman, owner of HMV, and Modella Capital, owner of Hobbycraft.
Investors have not wanted WHSmith to spend any more money on its high street arm, which has no real growth prospects.
Russ Mould at AJ Bell said; “Exiting makes strategic sense and there have been plenty of clues it would happen one day soon.
“The travel arm is where most of the profits are made. It makes sense to sharpen the focus on what a company does best by offloading less important interests such as the high street operations.”
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.
The British Retail Consortium has predicted that the Treasury’s hike to employer NICs from April 2025, 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.
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.
In some cases, stores have been shut when a retailer goes bust, as in the case of Carpetright, Debenhams, Dorothy Perkins, Paperchase, Ted Baker, The Body Shop, Topshop and Wilko 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.
The Centre for Retail Research (CRR) has warned that around 17,350 retail sites are expected to shut down this year.
