Topshop is temporarily closing the vast majority of its stores as part of a ‘reset’ programme, Retail Week has learned. 

The Arcadia-owned fashion chain is set to close around half of its store estate from Sunday evening in order to overhaul its merchandising ahead of the crucial Christmas trading period. 

Most of the stores being worked on will remain closed all day on Monday, although some re-opened during the afternoon.

The remaining Topshop stores will undergo a similar ‘reset’ in the coming days,as revealed by Retail-Week.com.

A limited number of stores, including those in Westfield’s London and Stratford City shopping centres, have already been refreshed in preparation for the golden quarter.

Others, including its flagship store on London’s Oxford Street, will not undergo the merchandising revamp.

The extensive ‘reset’ programme, which Arcadia has not undertaken before, is intended to better prepare its stores for peak trading as the fashion market becomes increasingly tough amid inflationary pressures and shaky consumer confidence.

The Sir Philip Green-owned group reported falling profits and sales in the year to August 2016 amid roaring results from agile competitors such as Asos, Boohoo and Missguided. 

Arcadia also suffered from a spate of senior departures earlier this year.

Long-time Topshop managing director Mary Homer became one of the most high-profile exits when she quit to join The White Company in March. Burton boss Wesley Taylor, Evans managing director Fiona Ross and Miss Selfridge creative director Yasmin Yusuf have also left the group.

Homer was replaced by Paul Price, who arrived at Arcadia as chief executive of both Topshop and Topman on September 4.

He was formerly Burberry’s chief merchandising officer and also held senior roles at both Banana Republic and Bloomingdales.

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