River Island plans to shut 33 shops, placing lots of of jobs in danger

[ad_1] River Island plans to shut 33 of its 230 shops and an extra 71 are in danger underneath a restructuring programme that might put greater than 1,000 jobs on the road.

The family-owned firm, which employs about 5,500 individuals, blamed a “migration of consumers from the excessive avenue to on-line” and better prices for the necessity to make the drastic adjustments to stem heavy losses.

The plan, which is being put along with assist from the advisory agency PricewaterhouseCoopers and is to be voted on by collectors in August, includes the closure of 33 shops, with the way forward for an extra 71 depending on talks with landlords to enhance rental offers.

Ben Lewis, the chief government of River Island, stated the corporate regretted any job losses and would “attempt to maintain these to a minimal”.

He stated: “River Island is a much-loved retailer, with a decades-long historical past on the British excessive avenue. Nevertheless, the well-documented migration of consumers from the excessive avenue to on-line has left the enterprise with a big portfolio of shops that's now not aligned to our prospects’ wants. The sharp rise in the price of doing enterprise over the previous couple of years has solely added to the monetary burden.”

River Island swung to a £33.2m loss in 2023, in response to the most recent accounts filed at Firms Home, after gross sales fell by greater than 19% to £578.1m. It made earnings of £2m in 2022.

In January, the group launched a cost-cutting effort together with a redundancy programme at its London head workplace, affecting departments similar to shopping for and merchandising.

River Island was previously often known as Chelsea Woman, and it started promoting clothes underneath the identify Lewis’s within the Forties.

Its troubles have emerged because the price range chain Poundland launched the same restructuring programme, with the eventual intention of shutting as much as 150 shops, two distribution centres and ending on-line gross sales, placing 2,000 jobs in danger.

On Friday, the British luxurious items maker Mulberry introduced plans to lift £20m to fund a turnaround plan because it admitted it will make a lack of £23m within the 12 months to 29 March, the same loss to the earlier 12 months. Gross sales are anticipated to fall to £120m, down from £153m.

Retailers throughout the excessive avenue are coming underneath strain from the rising price of wages and taxes, together with nationwide insurance coverage and enterprise charges, whereas client spending stays weak amid considerations about geopolitical occasions and inflation on fundamentals similar to meals and power.

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The fast rise of low-cost on-line sellers similar to Shein, Temu and Amazon has additionally put excessive avenue retailers underneath strain as customer numbers to bodily shops stay subdued.

Matthew Padian, an insolvency skilled on the regulation agency Stevens & Bolton, stated he anticipated extra retailers would flip to restructuring plans to scale back their retailer estates as the brand new system, launched through the pandemic, grew to become higher understood.