Today in retail: Too many shops, too little till-ringing

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Specialist fashion retailer N Brown posted rising sales today but also revealed that it would close five loss-making stores, leaving it with 16 in total.

This development, although seemingly minor, brings home an issue which is not going away anytime soon: the surplus of property that the high street is awash with.

Many fashion retailers are hamstrung by their property portfolios, with long leases and unprofitable stores a millstone around their necks.

In this context, it does not seem the wisest idea for etailers to expand into bricks and mortar, although Missguided boss Nitin Passi is throwing caution to the wind. He just opened Missguided’s second high-profile store in Bluewater – see a gallery here.

And Boohoo chairman and retail doyen Peter Williams wrote for us on this issue earlier this year.

As for the rest of the day’s news: Kingfisher continues to lose staff with sales and ops boss Jean-Paul Constant departing the retailer, LK Bennett’s losses spiralled in the year prior to Darren Topp’s turnaround plan and Tesco’s deliveries have been hit by an IT crash.