Great Britain’s multiple retailers closed an average of 20 stores a day across the UK’s top 500 town centres in 2012, according to data compiled for PwC by the Local Data Company.
Year on year the net reduction in the number of stores climbed more than tenfold from 174 closures in 2011 to 1,779 in 2012.
The data also revealed that card, computer games, clothes, banks, health foods, jewellers, travel agents, recruitment agencies and sports goods shops were among the hardest hit last year.
Pound shops, pawnbrokers, charity shops, cheque cashing, betting shops, supermarkets and coffee shops bucked the trend.
“2012 saw more retail chains go into insolvency than ever before,” says Mike Jervis, insolvency partner and retail specialist at PwC.
“The failed chains generally shared two problems – too many stores and too little multichannel activity.
“A number of them had failed to deal with their underlying issues by hiding behind light touch restructuring processes, especially company voluntary arrangements. 2013 has seen the downward trend become even worse.”
Christine Cross, chief retail adviser to PwC, adds: “Although the figures are more disappointing than many had hoped, we have to acknowledge that several of the companies with closures had anticipated these for some time.
“What is surprising is the speed at which stores have been picked up by value and grocery retailers in particular. Good businesses with good operating models and good people don’t fail.”
According to Matthew Hopkinson, director of The Local Data Company, over seven million sq ft of retail space – the equivalent of 131 football pitches or just over four Westfield London’s – was lost because of closures in 2012.
