The terrible predictions made last week appear to have come true. The prediction was that the high street could face another wave of administrations, due to payment of quarterly commercial property rentals being required.
During the last week a number of high street retailers have announced they will be entering administration or vacating their commercial property space. Thorntons, the confectionary company, is the latest victim of the economic conditions, saying 120 poorly performing stores face closure.
A marquee victim of commercial property rental day is, TJ Hughes, with the discount store chain officially calling in the administrators on Wednesday. The Liverpool-based chain, runs 57 stores across the UK and is one of Britain’s oldest retail chains having been founded in 1912. The retail chain trades from 2,500,000 sq ft of retail space across Britain and its closure will leave a huge gap in the commercial property market across the country.
Habitat, the household furnishings retailer, founded in 1964, has also entered all but 3 of its 33 UK stores into administration. Sir Terence Conran, the company’s founder said: ‘Of course I’m sad that my love child, Habitat, appears to be dying, but I am more interested in the future of my own business and design projects – that is my focus.’
To compound the woe of the commercial property market, Jane Norman, the women’s fashion chain, has also called in the administrators and announced that its 33 commercial properties will shut
Regarding the recent spate of high street retail closures, Maureen Hinton, senior retail analyst at Verdict Research, told the Guardian: ‘It feels every bit as bad as at the height of the credit crunch when Woolworths collapsed. We are going through a retrenchment that is probably as severe as we have seen since the war.’
The UK commercial property market will certainly feel frustrated by these closures. Following recent signs of a recovery across the sector, this news will come as a blow.
