FASHION giant River Island is set to push ahead with plans to shut 33 shops, including six in Scotland, after receiving court approval for a major restructuring.
A high court judge approved the high street fashion chain’s restructuring plan on Friday, amid fears that the company could collapse into administration without the overhaul.
It will also secure reduced rents on 71 other stores as part of the plan.
Lawyers for River Island told the court that the company “simply has not been able to reverse” a trend of financial difficulty.
Bosses at the fashion firm blamed the closures on the “migration of shoppers from the high street to online” and higher costs to run stores.
River Island fell to a £33.2 million loss in 2023 after sales slid by 19%, according to its most recent set of accounts.
The list of Scottish stores to close
- Cumbernauld
- Edinburgh Princes Street
- Falkirk
- Kilmarnock
- Kirkcaldy
- Perth, Scotland
The full list of stores to close in the UK
- Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire
- Bangor Bloomfield, Northern Ireland
- Barnstaple, Devon
- Beckton, Greater London
- Brighton, East Sussex
- Burton-Upon-Trent, Derbyshire
- Cumbernauld, Scotland
- Didcot, Oxfordshire
- Edinburgh Princes Street, Scotland
- Falkirk, Scotland
- Gloucester, Gloucestershire
- Great Yarmouth
- Grimsby, Lincolnshire
- Hanley, Staffordshire
- Hartlepool, County Durham
- Hereford, Herefordshire
- Kilmarnock, Scotland
- Kirkcaldy, Scotland
- Leeds Birstall Park, West Yorkshire
- Lisburn, Northern Ireland
- Northwich, Cheshire
- Norwich, Norfolk
- Oxford, Oxfordshire
- Poole, Dorset
- Rochdale, Greater Manchester
- St Helens, Merseyside
- Stockton On Tees, County Durham
- Surrey Quays, Greater London
- Sutton Coldfield, Warwickshire
- Taunton, Somerset
- Workington, Cumbria
- Wrexham, Wales
