A POPULAR high street fashion chain is closing one of its key stores today, marking yet another blow for shoppers.
Yours Clothing, the retailer known for its plus-size fashion, is permanently closing its store at Birmingham’s Bullring shopping centre.
It is owned by AK Retail, which acquired the fashion brand Evans along with the retailer M&Co.
The store, which has served customers since 2014, will cease trading by the end of the day.
To help clear stock before closure, the retailer has launched a closing-down sale, offering discounts of up to 20 per cent on various items.
Shoppers have just hours left to grab a bargain before the doors shut permanently.
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Fans of the brand who frequented the Bullring branch will now have to travel to the nearest Yours Clothing locations in Merry Hill, 13.5 miles away, or West Bromwich, which is approximately 7.6 miles from the Bullring.
The closure will disappoint many loyal customers who have praised the store over the years.
One shopper previously described the shop as a “lovely” place, adding: “I love that there’s a shop for us plus-size girlies.
“The layout was great, and the staff were always lovely.”
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This is not the first time Yours Clothing has shut a store.
Last year, the retailer closed its branch in the Vicar Lane Shopping Centre in Chesterfield, Derbyshire.
Birmingham shoppers are facing at increasing number of closures.
Just last week, fashion retailer Monki pulled the plug on its Birmingham location, closing its doors on March 9.
Meanwhile, Waitrose also shut down one of its local stores back in January, highlighting financial struggles as the main reason.
Retailers across the UK are feeling the squeeze as more shoppers move online, while high business rates and rising costs continue to take their toll.
According to the Centre for Retail Research, a staggering 13,479 stores shut their doors for good in 2024, with an average of 37 closures per day.
Many of these closures are due to insolvency proceedings, as businesses struggle to keep up with financial pressures.
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The trend is expected to continue in 2025, with high-profile chains like New Look planning to shut stores as part of a restructuring strategy.
Up to 91 of New look’s 364 stores are at risk as leases come up for renewal, potentially impacting thousands of employees.
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The British Retail Consortium has predicted that the Treasury’s hike to employer NICs will cost the retail sector £2.3billion.
Research by the British Chambers of Commerce shows that more than half of companies plan to raise prices by early April.
A survey of more than 4,800 firms found that 55% expect prices to increase in the next three months, up from 39% in a similar poll conducted in the latter half of 2024.
Three-quarters of companies cited the cost of employing people as their primary financial pressure.
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.”
Professor Bamfield has also 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.”
