A TRENDY fashion chain owned by H&M has launched a closing down sale at one its branches, with a further six set to shutter.
Monki has put up signs at its store in the Arndale Shopping Centre, Manchester, saying it will shut on January 12.
The location is one of seven that H&M has said will close or merge with another of its fashion brands, Weekday.
The move comes as part of plans to blend the two brands together to make a one-stop shop appealing to young shoppers.
A previous statement from H&M said: “A limited number of Monki stores are intended to be transformed into multi-brand Weekday destinations, while the others are intended to be closed.
“The newly formed Weekday multi-brand destination will cater to customers’ high aesthetic standards while embracing their multitude of unique expressions.”
Monki stock will continue to be sold on the WeekDay website and in some WeekDay stores, H&M said.
As part of the process, the retailer will also start stocking Cheap Monday lines in Weekday stores.
H&M has not confirmed which of the remaining Monki six stores across the UK will close and which ones will be merged with Weekday.
Currently, all seven shops remain open while the website is still live, with an up to 50% off sale on.
The full list of Monki stores in the UK includes:
The announcement from H&M comes after it faced stagnant sales in the first nine months of the financial year.
Net sales between December 1, 2023, and August 31 were flat compared to the same time period 12 months before.
It also said sales at the start of the third quarter this year were slow due to colder-than-usual weather while they picked up slightly in July and August.
The news from H&M comes as the retail sector struggles in the face of a number of challenges.
Retailers have been battling with high business rates and high inflation has seen shoppers’ budgets hit.
The rise in popularity of online shopping has seen businesses take a hit in terms of footfall too.
A number of chains have fallen into administration in recent years, including iconic chain Wilko, Homebase and Paperchase.
Independent and small businesses are languishing as well, not just the bigger chains.
This week, the British Independent Retailers Association (BIRA) said shop owners had weathered one of their most challenging years.
Andrew Goodacre, chief executive officer, said spending on non-food items had declined “significantly” while lower footfalls and “fragile consumer confidence” had impacted high streets nationwide.
The independent retail sector has also been hit with an increase in in-store crime.
BIRA’s latest survey revealed 78% of businesses had been targeted by thefts in the past 12 months and that the frequency and severity of theft incidents had risen.
It’s not all bad news across the sector though, with a number of retailers bucking the trend and expanding.
Discounter Aldi is opening branches across the UK as part of £650million expansion plans.
Meanwhile, bakery chain Gails is set to open 40 more locations after a surge in popularity.
EMPTY shops have become an eyesore on many British high streets and are often symbolic of a town centre’s decline.
The Sun’s business editor Ashley Armstrong explains why so many retailers are shutting their doors.
In many cases, retailers are shutting stores because they are no longer the money-makers they once were because of the rise of online shopping.
Falling store sales and rising staff costs have made it even more expensive for shops to stay open. In some cases, retailers are shutting a store and reopening a new shop at the other end of a high street to reflect how a town has changed.
The problem is that when a big shop closes, footfall falls across the local high street, which puts more shops at risk of closing.
Retail parks are increasingly popular with shoppers, who want to be able to get easy, free parking at a time when local councils have hiked parking charges in towns.
Many retailers including Next and Marks & Spencer have been shutting stores on the high street and taking bigger stores in better-performing retail parks instead.
Boss Stuart Machin recently said that when it relocated a tired store in Chesterfield to a new big store in a retail park half a mile away, its sales in the area rose by 103 per cent.
In some cases, stores have been shut when a retailer goes bust, as in the case of Wilko, Debenhams Topshop, Dorothy Perkins and Paperchase to name a few.
What’s increasingly common is when a chain goes bust a rival retailer or private equity firm snaps up the intellectual property rights so they can own the brand and sell it online.
They may go on to open a handful of stores if there is customer demand, but there are rarely ever as many stores or in the same places.
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