Poundworld on brink of administration putting 5,300 jobs at risk
Poundworld is poised to announce its intention to appoint administrators.

The move will allow the company 10 days to two weeks to continue talks with potential buyers without the company's creditors being able to make a claim on the business.

It also allows its staff and suppliers to continue to be paid.

House of Fraser to close 31 stores
Department store chain House of Fraser is to close 31 of its 59 shops, affecting 6,000 jobs, as part of a rescue deal.

If the plan is approved, 2,000 House of Fraser jobs will go, along with 4,000 brand and concession roles.

Carluccio's rescue plan could close 30 restaurants
Carluccio's could close up to a third of its branches in a Company Voluntary Arrangement (CVA) rescue plan.

Over 90% of Carluccio's creditors approved the CVA, allowing it to close 30 loss-making restaurants.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-44398352

That’s 5,300 jobs at risk


https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-44394948

While not retail, restaurant chain Carluccio’s is having to scale back too

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-44315826
Not sure how many jobs that will affect, but the one here in Chelmsford is potentially one to close.

Anyway, those three are a potential 11,000+ jobs under threat. As someone said on Twitter the other day, if this was the car industry, or steel, the government would be stepping in to try to keep those jobs safe. That’s partly because the job losses would affect an entire area, and could kill a town completely. Retail is more distributed around the country, so that problem is lessened, but even so, that’s still a big loss.

i wonder if online trading/sales is affecting the high street stores along with sky high local business taxes, i wonder.

Poundworld faces collapse after rescue talks fail

Discount retailer Poundworld is expected to appoint administrators, putting 5,100 jobs at risk.
Talks with a potential buyer R Capital have collapsed meaning that the owner TPG felt it had no option but to put the company into administration.

Local rates & taxes (the ones issued by the local council) aren't that much of an issue by themselves. The issue is the cost of stock.
In the last 12 months, the devalued £ has meant a lot of items have increased in price, we've seen price increases of 50%+ on some items.

Businesses have tried to avoid passing all this cost on to consumers but that eats in to the money needed to run a business & depletes your reserves.
When businesses do start raising prices to cover their costs, people stop buying & the business goes under.

For businesses like Poundland where they don't get a 50%+ markup & would on a 1-4% margin & manufacture in China,then import to the UK, this happens a lot faster.

New research has found that six shops were demolished or converted every day for the duration of the previous business rates regime, as the property tax burden became unsustainable for thousands of independent retailers.

After analysing official government data, ratings advisor Atlus Group found that 15,856 shops completely “disappeared” across communities in England and Wales from 2010 until April 2017.

According to Atlus Group, at the start of the government’s last Rating List in April 2010, the shop count stood at 430,360, with a collective rateable value of £7.86bn. At the start of 2017, the headcount of shops had dropped 3.68 per cent, with a combined rateable value of £8.14bn.

Demonstrating the environment retail owners are competing in, the overall rateable value rose by £286m despite the steady decline in shops.