Retail bankruptcies rose 10% in the past three months as Clinton Cards and Game joined a host of retailers to crash into financial difficulty.
A report by PricewaterhouseCoopers said 426 businesses became insolvent in the second quarter against 386 a year ago, triggered in part by wet weather deterring shoppers and poor consumer confidence.
The accountancy firm said retail bucked a wider trend for improving corporate insolvency figures. The number fell by 3% to just under 4,000 year on year.
PricewaterhouseCoopers partner Mike Jervis said: “There has been a clear reduction in the incidence of insolvencies over the current recession compared to previous ones. Retail is the sector which keeps bucking this trend.
“In fact, quarter-on-quarter retail insolvencies have increased for every one of the last four quarters.”
Conditions are proving tough for high street retailers. The announcement of a 0.7% fall in GDP between April and June last week coincided with data released by the BRC that showed store numbers fell for the first time in three years in the second quarter.
The BRC Bond Pearce Employment Monitor showed the number of stores fell 0.5% year on year.
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