Big high street chains shut 14 shops per day in 2011: study
High rents and rates forced high street chains to put up the shutters on an average of 14 stores across the UK last year, stats compiled by the Local Data Company (LDC) on behalf of PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) revealed.
Multiple retailers slashed their high street presence by 0.25 per cent, which stands for a reduction of 174 shops during 2011.
Bookshops, electrical stores, menswear, home furnishings, holiday retailer and pubs & bars suffered fall in numbers, while charity shops, credit unions and pound stores managed to buck the decline.
One of the many reasons behind the unprecedented closure of stores was shopping via online and from out-of-town retailers.
Commenting on the findings, PwC insolvency partner & retail specialist Mike Jervis said, “Electricals and bookshops have suffered as these products are now increasingly bought online but retailers in this sector are typically carrying unnecessarily large property portfolios.”
Since 2008, it was the first year when multiple big retailers saw an overall fall in the number of outlets.
Figures due from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) are expected to reveal that British retail sales volumes slipped 0.4 per cent between December and January.
