Over one eighth of Britain’s high street shops could go out of business in the next three years, a new study shows. According to an analysis for Company Watch, a financial risk management group, more than 12 percent of shops in the UK could shut their doors by 2016 as they are struggling with financial problems. The in-depth review into the high street by former Iceland and Wickes chief executive Bill Grimsey also found that two thirds of the smaller retailers are in danger of closure. Moreover, the study revealed that almost half of the UK’s retailers are at “serious risk of failure”. “We have to work as never before to create a new, invigorated environment, which will attract people into our town centres, reborn as welcoming and lively community hubs,” Grimsey wrote in The Sunday Telegraph. Earlier in May, a report found that over one in five of Britain’s high street shops could close by 2018 amid a rising fever among customers to turn to the internet for their shopping. The study, carried out by the Centre for Retail Research, warned that 62,000 shops would fold in the next five years, with almost 316,000 workers losing their jobs a [...]
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