High street card shop to shut ANOTHER store after announcing plans to close 38 branches in bid to avoid collapse
A HIGH street card shop will close another store within weeks after announcing plans in a bid to avoid collapse.
Clintons will shutter its store in Haverhill in early 2024.
The store, which is located on the High Street, will bring the shutters down for good on January 24, according to local news reports.
It comes just months after Clintons confirmed that it would shut 38 of its stores to avoid collapse.
However, the same reports confirm that the Haverhill closure is isolated from these plans and is a separate issue.
The property is already being marketed for rent, and possibly for sale, with fhp.co.uk.
The Sun has contacted Clintons to confirm the closure.
The chain currently has 179 shops nationwide and employs 1,400 people.
The harsh move to shut 38 stores is necessary to cut costs and stay afloat, according to the firm.
estructuring experts, FRP Advisory, and law firm, Jones Day, appeared in an insolvency court in the summer.
They came up with a deal to save thousands of jobs and over one hundred UK stores.
This involved waving goodbye to a selection of shops that were not earning enough money to make them profitable to keep.
Originally, Clintons planned to merge with another struggling stationary brand Paperchase.
However, the firm sadly went into administration at the start of the year.
Despite losing beloved branches, Clintons continues to battle rivals such as Card Factory, Moonpig and Funky Pigeon.
At its peak, the retailer had 2,500 staff working across 335 shops.
The greetings card shop is set to shut its Leeds City Centre store on Commercial Way.
The Leeds store has erected signs that say it will hold a closing down sale and some items will be up to 50% off.
However, it’s not yet clear when the store will close for good.
Which Clintons stores have already shut?
A branch in Kirkcaldy shopping centre already bit the dust earlier this year.
Meanwhile, a store in Whitehaven, Cumbria, was closed in March and the Bolton’s Market Street shop shut down in August.
Shoppers in Northamptonshire lost their local store in October.
Meanwhile, we explain which Iceland stores are closing this year.
Plus, B&M has closed a string of branches – find out which stores have closed down and if they are near you.
Why are retailers closing stores?
Retailers have been feeling the pinch since the pandemic while shoppers are cutting back on spending due to soaring inflation.
High energy costs and a shift to shopping online after the pandemic are also taking a toll and many high street shops have struggled to keep going.
Brands like Frasers have been moving and relocating profitable stores and brands within department stores but other brands have been shutting stores for good.
The inability to renegotiate rents and agreements with landlords is also putting pressure on some retailers to pull out of some locations.
A number of well-known retailers including Argos, Lloyds Pharmacy and Poundstretcher have closed branches in recent months.
But others have been hit so hard they’ve collapsed into administration.
Popular chains including M&Co, Paperchase and Wilko closed all stores in 2023.
However, some big brands are expanding the number of stores they operate.
Poundland is opening 15 new stores over the next few weeks.
These openings form part of the retailer’s plans to bring the shutters up on 50 new stores by the end of the year.
B&M is also opening more than a dozen new branches across the UK by the end of 2023.