Retail collapses decline despite Bank’s woes
THE NUMBER of retailers that collapsed into administration fell by more than a third last year as the high street benefited from improving consumer confidence, according to Deloitte.
Some 119 retailers fell into administration, down 35 per cent on 2013, when 183 high street names were forced to close their doors, the professional services firm said.
Almost a third of these occurred in the first three months of the year after Christmas, when retailers buckle under the pressure of VAT payments and impending rents.
The first major casualty of this year is Bank, which called in administrators this week, less than two months after being sold by JD Sports to investment firm Hilco.
“Although the overall trend for the sector is positive, there will always be individual retail insolvency cases, as with the clothing chain Bank,” Deloitte partner Lee Manning said.
“Consumer confidence increased and the retail industry benefited,” he added.
Overall, some 1,302 businesses collapsed last year, down 20 per cent on 2013. Financial services and IT were the only sectors to report a rise in administrations.