33 profitable branches of British fashion retailer River Island are set to shut their doors for good by the end of January 2026.
The fashion retailer announced the closures after suffering losses of £33.2 million in recent years.
Hundreds of jobs are already at risk, but another 71 branches have been saved after the retailer managed to negotiate reduced rent for the locations.
The brand’s owners blamed shoppers buying online instead of on the high street, as well as the increasing cost of running physical stores, for the slump in trading after sales fell by 19%.
The family-owned retailer, which was founded in 1948, brought in advisers earlier this year to oversee the restructure process.
But within a few weeks, many popular locations will shut down as the company looks to cut costs and address mounting losses.
Chief executive Ben Lewis said: ‘We have a clear transformation strategy to ensure the long-term viability of the business, and this decision gives us a strong platform to deliver this.
‘Recent improvements in our fashion offer and shopping experience are starting to show results, and the restructuring plan will enable us to align our store estate to our customers’ needs.
‘We are grateful to our suppliers, landlords and other stakeholders for their constructive engagement and shared confidence in River Island’s future.’
Full list of River Island branches set to close by January 2026
- Beckton
- 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
- Perth, Scotland
- Poole, Dorset
- Rochdale, Greater Manchester
- St Helens, Merseyside
- Surrey Quays, Greater London
- Sutton Coldfield, Warwickshire
- Taunton, Somerset
- Workington, Cumbria
- Wrexham, Wales
The company was saved in a last-minute rescue package in August at the High Court.
Matthew Weaver KC, representing River Island at the High Court, said the company ‘simply has not been able to reverse’ a trend of financial difficulty.
He blamed a decline in footfall and sales caused by ‘the pressures of a highly competitive and changing retail environment as well as the prevailing trend away from high street retail stores to online shopping’.
He warned that if the plan was not sanctioned, the ‘most likely scenario’ is that River Island would ‘enter into an insolvency process within which there would be a sale of the stock, brand and intellectual property’.
The business was forecast to be unable to pay its debts from late August or early September of this year, with a predicted £43million shortfall.
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