Patisserie Valerie closes in city while future is uncertain for Jack Wills and William Hill

Chichester’s branch Patisserie Valerie permanently closed.

A poster on the front of the North Street café on Monday read: “Dear valued customer, We are sorry to confirm that this patisserie has now permanently closed.

“We would like to take this opportunity to thank both our loyal customers and the team that ran the patisserie for their dedication and hard work.”

The note pointed out the nearest store from Chichester was Portsmouth and added: “Once again we would like to thank you for your loyal custom and we hope to see you soon.”

In January this year, the firm collapsed into administration but was saved in February after being bought out by Irish private equity firm Causeway Capital Partners.

The future of Jack Wills, also in North Street, was also uncertain this week after it appointed financial advisers to look at issues in the company.

The fashion brand suffered a slump in sales and current investor, Bluegem Capital Partners, is looking to sell the company on. of has The note outside the now-closed Patisserie Valerie and the Jack Wills shop in North Street, Chichester

The company has also employed the help of advisory firm KPMG which was involved in the liquidation of HMV and many other highprofile cases of business closures.

Jack Wills has 96 shops across the UK, including ones in Horley, Brighton and Eastbourne.

Last month KPMG reported a 2.7 per cent decline in retail sales in May, a figure which the firm described as ‘the worst decline since records began’. Jack Wills also saw a £7.5million loss in the last financial year.

Last week, bookmakers

William Hill announced it was to close around 700 shops. There are five branches of the betting shop across Chichester and Bognor Regis.

A spokesman for the company said: “William Hill has entered into a consultation process with retail colleagues over plans to close around 700 licensed betting offices.

“This follows the Government’s decision to reduce the maximum stake on B2 gaming products to £2 on 1 April 2019.

“Since then the company has seen a significant fall in

gaming machine revenues, in line with the guidance given when the Government’s decision was announced in May 2018.

“A large number of redundancies is anticipated with 4,500 colleagues at risk. The group will look to apply voluntary redundancy and redeployment measures extensively and will be providing support to all colleagues throughout the process.

“Subject to the outcome of the consultation process, shop closures are likely to begin before the end of the year.”