UK retailers cut almost 120,000 jobs last year and store closures reached a total of more than 10,000 in what has been called an“exceptionally difficult” year, according to the Centre for Retail Research (CRR).
According to the latest figures, 119,405 jobs were lost while 10,494 stores shut their doors for the final time as retailers including Wilko, Victoria Plum and Tile Giant were among those that collapsed in 2023.
The CRR said the collapse of Wilko impacted 400 UK stores and 12,000 employees across the UK and was the “biggest fall of a high-street icon since the collapse of Woolworths”.
Despite this, it added that the string of administrations in 2023 was “moderated by the fact that several of the most poorly run businesses, including Debenhams, Arcadia, Jessops and M&Co, failed in previous years”.
The number of store closures was down by 38.8% and redundancies during the year were down by 21.3% in comparison to the 2022 end-of-year figures.
Professor Joshua Bamfield, director at the CRR, said: “This ‘improvement’ is probably best viewed as a trend that is ‘less bad’ rather than ‘good’ and doesn’t reflect any real strength in the sector.
“The cost-of-living crisis, inflation and increases in interest rates have led many consumers to tighten their belts, reducing retail spend.
”Retailers themselves have suffered increasing energy and occupancy costs, staff shortages and falling demand that have made rebuilding profits after extensive store closures during the pandemic exceptionally difficult.”
The centre added that “most” of the job cuts and store closures came as a result of company reorganisation and cost-cutting programmes rather than “actual business failures”.
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