Sir Philip Green’s Arcadia Group is quietly closing stores for four of its fashion brands at Westfield London.
The group is shutting its Dorothy Perkins, Burton, Wallis and Evans stores at the shopping centre on 23 June, after choosing not to renew their leases. Arcadia has leased the stores that total 17,000 sq ft since the opening of the shopping centre a decade ago
The closures mean that Topshop/Topman will be the only Arcadia-owned fashion labels with a store at the shopping complex.
Shopping centre investment – something’s got to give
The news comes after Taveta Investments, the company behind Arcadia, last month posted a 42% decline in operating profit to £124.1m in the year to 26 August last year. Its sales fell by 5.6% during the year, to £1.9bn.
In the report, Taveta said that “numerous buying options” available to customers and increasing competition from new entrants in the digital sector meant that market conditions remained “challenging and competitive”.
Its total store estate as of last summer, including concessions, tallied around 2,800 worldwide, measuring 6.4m sq ft.
According to Radius Data Exchange there are more than 600 standalone stores operating under an Arcadia Group brand in the UK, excluding concessions.
The closures at Westfield London coincide with the second of three staggered launch phases for its £600m extension this month. The second phase include s a Primark, which has opened the doors to its 70,000 sq ft shop, and bowling venue All Star Lanes, which has taken 16,910 sq ft. Other occupiers will include golfing operator Puttshack, food hall Ichiba and Chinese fast fashion retailer Urban Revivo.
In January, Westfield estimated that the 740,000 sq ft extension was 92% let. The final phase of openings is slated for 30 October to coincide with the shopping centre’s 10th anniversary.
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