A MAJOR retailer has confirmed the closure of one of its stores, in another blow to the high street.
Next, which runs around 500 UK branches, is shuttering its branch in Huddersfield later this year.
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The store in the Kingsgate Centre will be closing in July when the lease on the space expires, according to Yorkshire Live.
Staff at the store have already been informed of the plans.
A spokesperson for Next confirmed the closure: “The lease on the Kingsgate Centre Next store comes to an end in July, when it will the close.
“All staff affected are already aware of the situation.”
Locals have been reacting to the news of the closure on social media.
One said: “There’s a lady that’s worked there for such a long time , she’s so lovely. I hope she’s found something else.
“Sadly there’s not much left in Huddersfield to bother going now.”
Another wrote: “Everywhere in hudds is closing. One by one it’s a shame, I used to love town!”
A third posted: “I just feel sorry for the staff.”
While a fourth commented: “Huddersfield is just a graveyard now, what a shame.
“It was awesome when I was younger and going out round town.”
And a fifth said: “Huddersfield town centre is embarrassing- nobody wants too shop there.
“Kirklees council is an utter disgrace. Shame on you for allowing all this.”
“There’s nothing going to be left soon in Huddersfield,” another wrote.
Following the closure the next closest Next in Huddersfield will be in the Great Northern Retail Park.
It comes after shoppers have recently shared their concerns following news of the planned closure of KFC in Huddersfield.
The town also recently lost BrewDog and the Slug and Lettuce.
Local brewery Magic Rock also recently filed for administration, in a blow to locals.
RETAIL PAIN IN 2025
The British Retail Consortium has predicted that the Treasury’s hike to employer NICs will cost the retail sector £2.3billion.
Research by the British Chambers of Commerce shows that more than half of companies plan to raise prices by early April.
A survey of more than 4,800 firms found that 55% expect prices to increase in the next three months, up from 39% in a similar poll conducted in the latter half of 2024.
Three-quarters of companies cited the cost of employing people as their primary financial pressure.
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.”
Professor Bamfield has also 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.”
Other Next news
Next is set to introduce self-service checkout tills from next month in a bid to cut extra staffing costs from the Budget.
The comments came as the chain warned it would have to raise shop prices by 1% this year to cover the impact from the Budget’s tax raid.
Chief executive Lord Simon Wolfson told The Sun that shoppers would not have faced higher prices had it not been for the Budget.
“It is 1% on what would have been zero”, he said.
He revealed that the retail giant was going to start trialling the tills in February or March as part of its efforts to cut costs and reduce the need to raise prices even higher.
The Next boss did not reveal how many stores, or which shops would be selected, but confirmed that if the trial was successful they would be rolled out nationally within the next six months.
Next revealed that it was facing a total £73million increase in wage costs to its £900million annual wage bill as a result of the Budget.
The increase in the national living wage adds £21million to its payroll costs while it faces a £20million hit from the change to employers’ national insurance contributions and a further £6million increase from the increase to national insurance.
Next is just one of a number of retailers that has warned over the fallout from the Government’s Budget.
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