Fashion store will keep its city centre doors closed
A MAJOR retailer has confirmed it will not be reopening its Durham city centre store after lockdown.
Topshop and Topman will be closed after bosses decided not to renew the lease for the premises on Silver Street.
It is the latest big name to shut its doors in the city centre, with Marks and Spencer, Pret A Manger and Krispy Kreme closing in recent years.
A spokesman for the Arcadia Group, which owns the chain, confirmed the store would be closing following a review of its lease and alternative jobs for staff would be looked at.
It comes after reports of Sir Philip Green’s Topshop and Topman chain seeing profits drop to a £505 million loss as sales fell.
Sales at the fashion brands, which have about 350 stores worldwide, fell 9% to £846.8m in the year to 1 September last year as they struggled to compete with rivals such as Asos, H&M and Primark. Sales fell by 9.8% at the 200 UK stores.
Topshop is the main business in Green’s Arcadia retail empire.
As part of a rescue plan, 23 stores were closed that included Outfit on Newcastle’s Northumberland Street. Arcadia Group is the latest retail firm to suffer from the slump on the High Street which has claimed high profile victims such as Toys’R’Us and Maplins, while the department store chains House of Fraser and Debenhams have gone into administration. A combination of factors, including rising wage costs, business rates, plus a switch to online shopping have been blamed for the crisis in the retail sector.
THOUSANDS of people in the North East have seen their income more than halved by the coronavirus outbreak, according to a wideranging ChronicleLive survey on how the crisis is affecting the region.
More than 17,000 ChronicleLive readers took part in the Great Lockdown Survey – part of a national initiative by Chronicle and Journal publishers Reach – answering questions on how the crisis was affecting their health and wellbeing, the financial status and their rating of how the Government is handling the crisis.
The survey revealed that 43% of people had seen their household income drop since the start of the outbreak and 45% said it had dropped due to being put on furlough.
Of those who had seen a fall in income, 22% had seen it reduced by more than 50%.
More than two-thirds of those questioned (69%) thought social distancing measures were introduced too late, but on average people rated the Government’s handling of the crisis as good, returning a score of 6.1 out of 10.
The North East’s rating of the Government was one of the lowest in the country, however.
Chief medical officer Prof Chris Whitty received the highest rating for his handling of the crisis with an average score of 7.2, followed by Chancellor Rishi Sunak on 7.0. Prime Minister Boris Johnson was rated at 6.6 and Health Secretary Matt Hancock at 6.0.
The toll on the region’s mental health has also been revealed in the survey, with 35% of respondents saying they have experienced more anxiety since social distancing measures have been put into place than they usually would. Twenty-one per cent have experienced more depression and 19% more loneliness, with only 25% saying they were unaffected.
Almost a third of people responding to the survey had children, and nearly half of those (48%) said they found juggling childcare with other responsibilities somewhat or very difficult (compared to 23% who found it somewhat or very easy).
On average, people rated the Government’s handling of the crisis as good, returning a score of 6.1 out of 10