A MAJOR fashion retailer with more than 350 stores will close a shopping centre location TODAY.
New Look will be pulling down the shutters of one of its locations in Birmingham.
The store – which is located in the city’s Northfield shopping centre – announced the closure to customers through a sign in the window of the store.
“Thanks for having us, Northfield,” it reads.
“This store will be closing on Sunday 8th June.
“Don’t worry, you’ll still be able to find us at Newlook.com with 100s of new styles dropped every week! Scan to download our app for exclusive offers.”
In the lead up to Sunday’s closure, the retailer has launched a major closing-down sale, with prices slashed by up to 70%.
The retailer has not confirmed the reason behind the move, it is also uncertain how many staff members will be impacted or whether anyone has been issued a redundancy notice.
What’s happening at New Look?
New Look is ramping up a store closure programme ahead of April’s National Insurance hike.
Approximately a quarter of the retailer’s 364 stores are at risk when their leases expire.
This equates to about 91 stores, with a significant impact on it’s 8,000 strong workforce.
The company has restructured its store estate twice in the past six years, reducing its portfolio from around 600 UK stores in 2018.
For the time being, stores remain open as usual, and no final decisions regarding closures have been made.
The move to accelerate store closures is understood to be driven by the forthcoming increase in National Insurance, announced by Chancellor Rachel Reeves in October.
Employers currently pay NICs for most workers earning more than £9,100 a year.
The sum they pay is the equivalent of 13.8% of the employee’s earnings above that threshold.
For an employee earning £30,000, the employer would pay NICs of £2,884.20.
However, in the Autumn Statement, the Treasury announced it would increase the tax rate to 15% and reduce the threshold at which firms must pay to £5,000.
The British Retail Consortium has predicted that these changes will create a £2.3billion bill for the sector.
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.”
A New Look spokesperson said: “Our store estate is an important part of our business, alongside our best-in-class website and app.
“We have recently invested over £3million in our stores in Greater Manchester to trial new omnichannel initiatives to improve customer experience.
“We also continue to invest in our thriving online platform which has resulted in a strong online sales performance, with volumes significantly outpacing last year and an improved online margin.”
“On occasion we do have to close stores, either due to the landlord’s request or because the site becomes unviable.
“However, we always remain on the lookout for appropriate new opportunities across the country and continue to invest in our existing store estate.”
