2025 is turning out to be a turbulent year for privately-owned fashion chain River Island. It began with the company drafting in advisers and now it has announced that it’s shutting a number of stores and shedding jobs.
It will close 33 stores with hundreds of jobs to be lost, but another 71 are at risk out of the firm’s current 230-store total. It employs around 5,500 people at present and 1,000 of those jobs could be lost if all of the at-risk stores are closed.
The company has blamed the shift to online shopping as well as higher costs over the last year that deepened its losses. Its restructuring plan will go to a creditor vote in August and the final number of store closures seems to be dependent on talks with landlords about improving rental deals.
CEO Ben Lewis, a member of the family that owns the business, regretted the job losses and said the retailer will “try to keep these to a minimum”.
River Island’s most recent set of accounts filed at Companies House is for 2023 and they show that it made a £33.2 million loss as sales fell by almost 20% to £578.1 million. It had been profitable the year before but only to the tune of £2 million.
The River Island news comes just days after loss-making budget chain Poundland was sold with its new owner announcing store closure plans and on the same day that luxury bags brand Mulberry said it planned to raise millions of pounds for investment and that trading was currently weak.
That highlights the problems being faced across the general retail and specifically the fashion sector as major names at all price levels struggle in the face of weak consumer spending.
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