New Look will shut another store this month, bringing its total UK closures to 13 this year. Scarborough in North Yorkshire will be the next town to see its high street staple disappear for good, on September 17 in the Brunswick Centre.
The latest high street loss follows the Neath branch in Wales, which closed forever on August 6. England has lost 10 New Look stores this year, Wales has lost two, and Scotland has lost one, in Hamilton. Ireland has been hit the hardest, with 26 of the clothing stores leaving the high street this year. The first UK branch to disappear this year was New Look’s Wickford branch in Essex, which closed on January 24 after 15 years of trading.
New Look states that it has 338 UK stores, which is a drastic drop from around 600 outlets in 2018. The clothing retailer has already restructured its UK store estate twice in the past six years.
A New Look spokesperson said that this does not signal the end of the high street, but was rather an “omni-channel” approach.
They said: “Our store estate is an important part of our business, alongside our best-in-class website and app. It is this omni-channel approach which allows us to best serve our 10 million customers, however, they like to shop.
