Retail sees 14 closures a day as 5,000 stores vanish in 2023

High-profile retail restructuring and administrations have resulted in a net of 14 store closures a day during 2023, according to research from LDC and PwC, meaning that 5,000 fewer shops are currently trading across the country.  

The research has attributed the high volume of closures to the collapses of high street staples such as Wilko, Paperchase and Lloyds Pharmacy, which have outweighed the number of openings in 2023. 

While retail stores saw more closures, there was an uptick in fast food sites and coffee shop openings during the previous year. 2023 saw the highest rate of new openings since 2019 at a total of 9,138, but the majority of those were made up of hospitality venues. 

Meanwhile, there were a total of 11,530 store closures as a result of “one-off” restructurings and failures across large retail groups. 

The report from PwC and LDC follows The Body Shop’s administrators, FRP Advisory, confirming that an additional 75 stores closed in February this year, which have put more than 400 jobs at risk. 

According to FRP, the decision would result in 489 employees being made redundant over the next four to six weeks.