A MAJOR high street bakery chain has suddenly closed another store, after shutting 170 branches across the country.
The news was confirmed on a window notice at the shuttered store, leaving loyal customers shocked.
Patisserie Valerie in Maidstone, Kent, thanked locals for their support – and made a cryptic reference to a potential return.
The message read: “We would like to take this time to take this opportunity to thank you for your support over the years, and we look forward to returning to Maidstone as soon as possible.”
The Belgian chain is famed for its luxurious cakes, pastries and coffee.
As well as running physical bakeries, it also stocks its sweet treats in various supermarkets including Sainsbury’s.
The company opened its first branch in London in 1926, before rapidly expanding to almost 200 across the country – with 3,000 employees.
But it fell into administration in 2019, and was forced shut more than 170 bakeries.
Since then, further stores have also announced closures – including High Wycombe’s Eden Shopping Centre branch in January last year.
A Patisserie Valerie in Nottingham city centre followed suit a few months later– with a handwritten note on the front door announcing that it had been “permanently closed”.
The closure prompted a wave of locals to bemoan the state of the high street, with one writing: “Nottingham is becoming one awful ghost city.”
And another said: “Another one gone.”
Patisserie Valerie is not the only business to struggle with rising costs in recent weeks.
This week, another bakery, Palmers Bakery, in Stanton near Bury St Edmunds, also confirmed it would be shutting its doors in just a few weeks’ time – after 155 years of business.
WHAT IS HAPPENING TO HOSPITALITY?
Many food and drink chains have been struggling recently as the cost of living has led to fewer people spending on eating out.
Businesses had been struggling to bounce back after the pandemic, only to be hit with soaring energy bills and inflation.
Multiple chains have been affected, resulting in big-name brands like Wetherspoons and Frankie & Benny’s closing branches.
Some chains have not survived, Byron Burger fell into administration last year, with owners saying it would result in the loss of over 200 jobs.
Pizza giant, Papa Johns announced it would be shutting down 43 of its stores this year.
Tasty, the owner of Wildwood, also shut sites as part of major restructuring plans.
This year has seen the announcing of further closures including from casual dining group Chipotle and an award-winning independent bistro in Merseyside.
Why are retailers closing stores?
RETAILERS have been feeling the squeeze since the pandemic, while shoppers are cutting back on spending due to the soaring cost of living crisis.
High energy costs and a move to shopping online after the pandemic are also taking a toll, and many high street shops have struggled to keep going.
However, additional costs have added further pain to an already struggling sector.
The British Retail Consortium has predicted that the Treasury’s hike to employer NICs from April will cost the retail sector £2.3billion.
At the same time, the minimum wage will rise to £12.21 an hour from April, and the minimum wage for people aged 18-20 will rise to £10 an hour, an increase of £1.40.
The Centre for Retail Research (CRR) has also warned that around 17,350 retail sites are expected to shut down this year.
It comes on the back of a tough 2024 when 13,000 shops closed their doors for good, already a 28% increase on the previous year.
Professor Joshua Bamfield, director of the CRR said: “The results for 2024 show that although the outcomes for store closures overall were not as poor as in either 2020 or 2022, they are still disconcerting, with worse set to come in 2025.”
It comes after almost 170,000 retail workers lost their jobs in 2024.
End-of-year figures compiled by the Centre for Retail Research showed the number of job losses spiked amid the collapse of major chains such as Homebase and Ted Baker.
It said its latest analysis showed that a total of 169,395 retail jobs were lost in the 2024 calendar year to date.
This was up 49,990 – an increase of 41.9% – compared with 2023.
It is the highest annual reading since more than 200,000 jobs were lost in 2020 in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic, which forced retailers to shut their stores during lockdowns.
The centre said 38 major retailers went into administration in 2024, including household names such as Lloyds Pharmacy, Homebase, The Body Shop, Carpetright and Ted Baker.
Around a third of all retail job losses in 2024, 33% or 55,914 in total, resulted from administrations.
Experts have said small high street shops could face a particularly challenging 2025 because of Budget tax and wage changes.
Professor Bamfield has warned of a bleak outlook for 2025, predicting that as many as 202,000 jobs could be lost in the sector.
“By increasing both the costs of running stores and the costs on each consumer’s household it is highly likely that we will see retail job losses eclipse the height of the pandemic in 2020.”
