Times are tough for many businesses as the cost of living crisis drags on and customers continue to tighten their belts. Just in the last couple of weeks, three major brands have announced a raft of store closures across the country.
Marks and Spencer, New Look and B&Q will be shutting a number of their shops. But the good news is that Nottingham is not mentioned in their recently-released lists of stores set to be axed.
In the last few days, M&S confirmed it will close seven shops across the UK. They are:
- East Kilbride Shopping Centre - closing February 25
- Carlton Street, Castleford - closing end of April
- Meadowbank Retail Park, Edinburgh - closing spring
- Newport Road, Cardiff - closing spring
- Eagles Meadow, Wrexham - closing autumn
- Linthorpe Road, Middlesbrough - closing April
-
Deansgate, Bolton - closing date to be confirmed
Last year, M&S announced it would shut nearly 67 outlets. The company is yet to reveal locations of other stores it has earmarked for closure or how many jobs will be affected.
A spokesperson for M&S said: "We recently announced that we are investing £480million in bigger, better stores across the UK. Our store rotation and investment programme is about making sure we have the right stores, in the right place, with the right space.
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"Whilst our store rotation programme involves closing some stores, it also means relocating and opening new stores in locations across the country. In this coming year alone, we are opening 20 new stores across the UK, including brand new M&S stores in Leeds, Liverpool, Birmingham, Manchester, Thurrock and Purley, and new M&S Foodhalls in locations such as Stockport, Wrexham, Barnsley and Largs."
Meanwhile, New Look has recently revealed the following store closures:
- Fort Shopping Park, Birmingham - closing January 9
- Trowbridge - closing January 23
- Coventry - closing January 29
- Bullring, Birmingham - closing January 30
- Walthamstow, London - closing February 4
- Grosvenor Centre, Northampton - closing February 15
- Kirkcaldy - closing date to be confirmed
A New Look spokesperson said: "As part of the normal course of business, New Look occasionally closes sites, but also opens new stores when the right opportunities arise. While a small number of stores have closed in recent months, our most recent new openings were in November 2022 and we have plans for further openings in the first half of this year."
And B&Q is shutting its outlets in Asda stores in these areas from March 12:
- Sheffield Drakehouse
- Dagenham
- Roehampton
- Edmonton
- Thurmaston
- Great Bridge
- Lancaster
- Hartlepool
A spokesperson for the home improvement store said the decision was made after an "intensive review". TK Maxx, Homesense, H&M and Boots have also recently announced store closures - but their lists do not mention their Nottingham shops.
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