More than 17,000 UK shops pulled down the shutters for the final time last year – the highest number in the last five years – according to figures provided by the Centre for Retail Research (CRR).
Around 47 shops closed every day in 2022 making it one of the most “brutal” years on record for closures. Last year’s figure of 17,145 closures was 49% up on the 11,449 shops closing their doors in 2021.
CRR’s research shows 5,509 of these shops were closed due to retailers undergoing some form of insolvency proceedings, with 11,636 shops closed because of cost cutting “rationalisation” programmes.
Store closures caused by insolvencies of large retailers with 10 or more shops fell by 56.1% in 2022, with the likes of Sofa Workshop, Joules and TM Lewin all failing.
Professor Joshua Bamfield, director of CRR, said: “Rather than company failure, rationalisation now seems to be the main driver for closures as retailers continue to reduce their cost base at pace.”
He said he expected this trend to continue in 2023 adding “a few big hitters may well fail” this year.
