Retail Casualties of Covid?

The demise of the high street continues with the collapse of Sir Philip Green’s Arcadia, here’s a run through of 20, 2020 casualties:

	Retailer	Type	Date	At risk	Outcome
1	Bon Marche	Cut price clothing	2/12/20	225 stores 1500 Jobs	Rescue deal on the cards
2	Arcadia –	TopShop Dorothy P’s Burtons Miss Selfridge	30/11/20	13,000 Jobs	Looking for buyers
3	EWM	EWN Peacocks Jaeger	19/11/20	76 stores 347 jobs	Deals in the pipeline
4	M&Co	Clothing – formally Mackays	Aug ’20	lost 47 stores & 381 jobs	Bought out & restructured
5	DW Sports	Sportswear	Aug ’20	1700 jobs	Closing down
6	Oliver Sweeney	Prestige Shoes	July ’20	7 stores	Stores all closing, online only
7	Peter Jones	Gifts & Homeware	July ’20	70 staff	Liquidation expected
8	Norville Group	Spectacles	July ’20	no redundancies	Bought out
9	Bensons Beds	Beds	June ’20	no redundancies	Bought out
10	Harveys	Furniture	June ’20	105 stores 1575 jobs	?
11	TM Lewin	Shirts & Ties	June ’20	600 jobs	Going online only
12	Bertram books	Books	June ’20	450 jobs	Gone
13	Go Outdoors	Outdoor sports equipment	June ’20	2,400 jobs	Bought out
14	Oak Furniture land	Furniture	June ’20	1,491 jobs	Bought out
15	Monsoon	Fashion	June ’20	197 stores	Bought out
16	Victoria’s Secret	Lingerie	June ’20	800 jobs	Searching for buyer
17	Oasis & Waterhouse	Clothing	April’20	All!	Closed indefinitely
18	Debenhams	Department store	April’20	12,000 jobs	?
19	Cath Kidston	Designer accessories	Mar ’20	900 jobs	Gone
20	Automony	Fashion	Mar ’20

I hadn’t realised how many there were until I started this list and it is not exhaustive.

I do not think that all of these are purely victims of Covid 19, the decline of the high street had started well before Covid reared its ugly head but I do believe it has been the final nail in the coffin for many. An inability to adapt rapidly enough to the changing demands of society and outdated business structures have rendered many incapable of continuing without major upheaval from the very top or resulted in collapse. For those able to snap up the failing businesses at a snip and commit to total restructure, it has been a boom year and some high street names owe their continued presence to these turnaround artists who have had to be decisive, objective, smart and often brutal.

Online retail is stronger than ever, we just need to look at the expansion of Amazon for evidence of this. Again, this is not just due to the pandemic but the lockdown certainly accelerated the wheels of change.

At Cambridge Finance we have embraced and adapted, with a sudden jump to virtual classrooms and are developing new courses as the priorities of the industry move back towards environmental concerns which have been side-tracked this year. February will see our first climate risk and commercial property valuation course which focuses on this crucial topic and how it can be interwoven into strategy, risk management and decision making.

We will be offering a new eLearning course in the new year – Introduction to real estate life cycles. Keep your eye out for this interactive training solution.