‘Red flag’ alert as 45,000 businesses across UK on brink of COLLAPSE, shows worrying report after tariff & tax hikes
The number of casualties is more than half the previous year's rate of retail collapses, when 61 chains failed and 971 shops were impacted.
Here, we explain some of the biggest retailers that got into trouble in 2024...
Sook
Sook was one of the first retail casualties of 2024 and was particularly depressing as it was meant to be the answer to empty high street stores.
The business operated 12 pop-up shops across the country in London, Birmingham, Southampton, Liverpool, Newcastle and Leeds and made high street space available for online brands like TikTok.
Tile Choice
Tile Choice, a Midlands-based flooring retailer with 18 shops, went into administration in January 2024.
Nine stores were snapped up by rival Tile Giant but the rest were not saved.
The business had 116 staff and £16million turnover in the last financial year, but had struggled with a slowdown in spending.
LloydsPharmacy
LloydsPharmacy, once the UK’s second biggest community pharmacy chain, went into liquidation in late January with debts of £293million.
The previous year it had closed all of its pharmacies inside Sainsbury’s and divided its 1,000 pharmacy estate into packages of hundreds of stores that it then sold to rivals in smaller deals.
There are no more LloydsPharmacy-branded sites on the high street, but it continues to operate online.
The Body Shop
The Body Shop filed for shock administration in February, just four months after being taken over by restructuring firm Aurelius.
Administrators immediately closed 75 of its 198 UK stores and made cuts to its head office while its international divisions were also declared bankrupt.
It took seven months for a rescue to be sealed with British cosmetics tycoon Mike Jatania in a deal that has kept 113 shops trading.
Matches Fashion
Matches Fashion, the designer clothing online retailer, was put into administration in March, less than three months after it was bought by Mike Ashley’s Frasers Group.
Frasers Group bought the business for £52million but said it was too heavily loss-making to turn around and closed it down.
The firm was founded 30 years ago by husband and wife team Tom and Ruth Chapman, who made £400million when selling the business to private equity firm Apax in 2017.
Ted Baker
Designer clothing and accessories brand Ted Baker initially filed for administration in April after the company that ran the brand in the UK also went bust.
At the time, Ted Baker had 46 shops in the UK employing around 975 people.
The business had been taken private by US firm Authentic Brands Group in a £211million deal.
The last stores shut in August after failing to secure a full rescue. It was relaunched as an online brand in the UK and Europe after a partnership with United Legwear & Apparel Co.
Muji
Japanese brand Muji, which had six stores in the UK including five in London’s busiest shopping streets, went into administration at the end of March.
The retailer had been popular with shoppers who liked its minimalistic stationery and homewares.
It was saved after a rescue deal with its parent company.
Carpetright
Flooring retailer Carpetright filed for administration in July after efforts to turnaround the struggling firm were derailed by a cyber attack.
The business had 1,800 staff and 273 shops across the country before going bust.
Around 54 stores were snapped up by its arch-rival Tapi Carpets & Floors, which also bought its brand name and continues to run the brand online.
The Floor Room
The Floor Room was owned by the same parent company behind Carpetright, Nestware Holdings.
The business traded out of 34 John Lewis concessions and employed 201 people.
The firm also relied on Carpetright for a number of its essential customer support services and could not survive on its own.
Homebase
DIY chain Homebase collapsed in November after years of struggles.
The business had around 130 shops across the UK and had been owned by restructuring firm Hilco, which bought the business for a single £1 in 2018.
Australia’s Wesfarmers had briefly owned Homebase in a disastrous attempt to break into the UK market.
Westfarmers bought Homebase in 2016 after Sainsbury's £1 billion purchase of Argos triggered a break-up of Home Retail Group.
The brand and some stores have been partially rescued by billionaire Chris Dawson, the owner of The Range and Wilko.