Major fashion brand with over 200 stores to close city centre branch in just HOURS
SHUTTERS DOWN
The branch's staff are expected to be moved to other stores
A CITY centre branch of a major fashion outlet is set to close its doors in a matter of hours.
The branch of Cos at St Ann's Square in Manchester will close as of June 8.
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No statement has been issued by the retailer regarding its closure.
However, a sign on the shop reads: "This store is closing on June 8.
"For more information, ask a member of our team or visit cos.com."
Cos, which is part of the H&M group, had sat among other brands like OMEGA, Christopher James, and Mappin & Webb on St Ann's Square.
The branch's staff are expected to be moved to other stores, the Manchester Evening News has reported.
Another H&M brand Monki also saw a store close in Manchester's Arndale recently.
Cos had taken its spot on St Ann's Square where GAP had previously been in 2018.
The brand, which launched in 2007, currently boasts more than 200 stores.
It comes as other high street retailers struggle across the country.
The owners of River Island are understood to be drawing up a radical rescue plan, according to Sky News.
The chain is being forced to restructure as a result of tough trading conditions.
The firm's latest accounts at Companies House warned of growing financial and operational risks.
"The market for retailing of fashion clothing is fast changing with customer preferences for more diverse, convenient and speedier shopping journeys and with increasing competition especially in the digital space," it said.
RETAILERS have been feeling the squeeze since the pandemic, while shoppers are cutting back on spending due to the soaring cost of living crisis.
High energy costs and a move to shopping online after the pandemic are also taking a toll, and many high street shops have struggled to keep going.
However, additional costs have added further pain to an already struggling sector.
The British Retail Consortium has predicted that the Treasury's hike to employer NICs from April will cost the retail sector £2.3billion.
At the same time, the minimum wage will rise to £12.21 an hour from April, and the minimum wage for people aged 18-20 will rise to £10 an hour, an increase of £1.40.
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."
It comes after almost 170,000 retail workers lost their jobs in 2024.
End-of-year figures compiled by the Centre for Retail Research showed the number of job losses spiked amid the collapse of major chains such as Homebase and Ted Baker.
It said its latest analysis showed that a total of 169,395 retail jobs were lost in the 2024 calendar year to date.
This was up 49,990 – an increase of 41.9% – compared with 2023.
It is the highest annual reading since more than 200,000 jobs were lost in 2020 in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic, which forced retailers to shut their stores during lockdowns.
The centre said 38 major retailers went into administration in 2024, including household names such as Lloyds Pharmacy, Homebase, The Body Shop, Carpetright and Ted Baker.
Around a third of all retail job losses in 2024, 33% or 55,914 in total, resulted from administrations.
Experts have said small high street shops could face a particularly challenging 2025 because of Budget tax and wage changes.
Professor Bamfield has 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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