PwC has launched its latest figures for stores opening and closing across Great Britain using research undertaken by Local Data Company. The bi-annual report tracks over 200,000 outlets in over 3,500 locations to gain a picture of the changing landscape of high streets, shopping centres, retail parks, and other out-of-town areas.
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Key results:
- 39 chain outlets closing each day, with 25 new outlets opening
- Net closures of 14 a day – higher than 2022 (10 per day), but an improvement on 2018-21
- Openings accelerated back to pre-pandemic levels, driven by hospitality (5 of the top 7 fastest growing categories), in retail park and other out-of-town locations
- Closures largely due to services such as banks and betting shops moving online, as well as large-scale restructurings and administrations in other categories
High profile collapses such as Wilko, Paperchase and Lloyds Pharmacy and more recently The Body Shop has been the main cause of inbalance between openings and closures.
The latest research finds that the country has witnessed an increase in both openings and closures in 2023 compared with the previous year. The acceleration in store closures can primarily be attributed to one-off large-scale restructuring in parts of retail and hospitality. There were a total of 14,081 store closures in 2023, averaging at 39 closures per day. The figure is higher than 2022’s total of 11,530, but lower than every year between 2017 and 2021, and in line with the 2016 figure (14,439).
Despite the overall decline, there has been a notable rebound in the hospitality sector, leading to a surge in new openings to meet consumer demand post-pandemic. The other top growing categories are supermarkets (+40, primarily due to the opening of discount supermarkets) and petrol stations (+48, with the rollout of EV charging stations offsetting a decline in traditional petrol forecourts).
On a positive note, 9,138 new stores opened across Great Britain in 2023 – the highest figure since 2019, illustrating the continued importance of physical sites, with successful operators taking advantage of vacant space to expand their footprints. This averages at 25 new stores opening each day across England, Scotland and Wales combined.
