STATIONER WHSmith will shut two stores this weekend as the historic chain continues to disappear from British high streets.
The sites in Halesowen in the West Midlands and Diss in Norfolk will close their doors for the last time on Saturday.
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The retailer will close up to 20 stores in the coming weeks after it agreed to sell off nearly 500 of its high street shops.
The latest round of closures kicked off last weekend when sites in Halstead, Essex, and Woolwich, London, shut their doors.
Huge sales have been launched across the stores set to close, with both Diss and Halesowen having cut prices by as much as 75%.
The shuttering of shops follows the sale of the stationery retailer to Hobbycraft owner Modella Capital.
It will see the WHSmith name disappear from the high street completely, although it has retained its outlets in travel locations.
The closure of six further sites in April, May and July has been confirmed and more could join them.
Those confirmed so far are:
- Halstead, Essex – April 12
- Woolwich, London – April 12
- Halesowen, West Midlands – April 19
- Diss, Norfolk – April 19
- Newport, Wales – April 26
- Haverhill, Suffolk – April 26
- Oldham, Greater Manchester – May 3
- Stockton, County Durham – May 17
- West Mall, Frenchgate Centre Doncaster – May 31
- Bedford, Bedfordshire – July 5
Ten WHSmith stores had already closed, before the announcement of the latest round of closures.
They were:
- Bournemouth Old Christchurch Road, Dorset
- Luton, Bedfordshire
- March, Cambridgeshire
- Basingstoke, Hampshire
- Long Eaton
- Newtown, Powys
- Winton branch in Bournemouth, Dorset
- Rhyl, Denbighshire
- Bolton, Greater Manchester
- Accrington, Lancashire
The end of WHSmith on the high street
The closures mark the beginning of the end of WHSmith’s 233-year stint on the high street.
Earlier this year, it put its entire high street estate up for sale as it focuses instead on its more profitable travel arm.
Its remaining 480 high street stores were snapped up by Hobbycraft owner Modella Capital last month as part of a £76million deal.
The move saved the jobs of roughly 5,000 employees.
However, the famous WHSmith name is set to disappear from the high street as the shops will be gradually rebranded to TGJones.
WHSmith stores will remain in airports, train stations and hospitals, and the retailer is planning to expand its travel arm.
The brand opened its first shop in 1792 in Little Grosvenor Street, London and went on to become the UK’s main newspaper distributor.
High street struggles
It’s been a tough year for the high street with both established chains and independents shuttering up sites across the country.
Earlier this week The Works confirmed the closure of its Margate High Street store, making it the sixth to be shuttered by the brand this year.
On the same day fashion retailer Joules said it’s branch in Salisbury, Wiltshire would close from Monday.
The store will be among several affected following the company’s financial restructuring.
The closures are just the latest after retailers suffered several bruising years following the Covid-19 pandemic.
Rising costs, a shift to online shopping and a dip in consumer confidence have all impacted retailers, with even established names shuttering sites.
Well-known brands such as Wilko and Paperchase have collapsed, while many others continue to scale back operations in a bid to reduce costs.
Homebase was sold out of administration and has seen many stores close.
While Boots is set to shut ten stores in the coming weeks as part of wider plans to reduce its UK portfolio by 300 sites.
Meanwhile JD Sports has confirmed it will shut down 50 stores next year.
The retailer, which has 4,850 stores across 36 countries, has not confirmed how many of the closures will be in the UK.
And major charity retailer Scope is also set to close a total of 50 stores.
Some 43 Scope stores are set to close between now and March 31, 2026, while a further four will shut in the 2026/27 financial year.
Others to have shuttered stores or announced closures for 2025 include fashion retailer Monki, Co-op, The Entertainer and Millets.
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 half of companies 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, with worse 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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