Fashion chain River Island confirms this Midlands store will close in January
Fashion chain River Island is to close its store in Hanley, Staffordshire, in the new year - it has been confirmed.
The store, located in The Potteries centre in Stoke on Trent, is among 32 outlets set to close in January 2026, the retailer has said.
The closures are part of a court approved restructuring plan that was sanctioned in August to help save the beleaguered British brand after it reported a £32.3m pre-tax loss.
The restructure, which ratified 33 shop closures and attempts to seek rent reductions at 71 locations, was signed off to prevent the business from going into administration.
It wasn’t enough, however, to save Wolverhampton’s flagship city store, which had a unique exterior with floor-to-ceiling glass frontages and a distinctive glassed tower, which closed on September 19 - just before the city's iconic Marks and Spencer store also shut its doors for good on September 27.
River Island employs around 5,500 people and was founded in 1948 under the Lewis and Chelsea Girl brand before being renamed in the 1980s.
A staple on the British high street, it has stores across the Midlands including in Walsall, Merry Hill, West Bromwich, Birmingham’s Bullring, Birmingham Fort, Sutton Coldfield, Stafford Riverside and Telford.
Ben Lewis, CEO of River Island, said in the summer after the court hearing that the restructuring plan would "ensure the long-term viability of the business" and help the brand to align its store estate to meet customers' needs.
River Island said it could not confirm the exact closure date in January for all of the affected outlets and said this would be determined on a store by store basis.
Full list of store closures in January:
- Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire
- Bangor Bloomfield, Northern Ireland
- Barnstaple, Devon
- Beckton, Greater London
- Brighton, East Sussex
- Burton-Upon-Trent, Derbyshire
- Cumbernauld, Scotland
- Didcot, Oxfordshire
- Edinburgh Princes Street, Scotland
- Falkirk, Scotland
- Gloucester, Gloucestershire
- Great Yarmouth
- Grimsby, Lincolnshire
- Hanley, Staffordshire
- Hartlepool, County Durham
- Hereford, Herefordshire
- Kilmarnock, Scotland
- Kirkcaldy, Scotland
- Leeds Birstall Park, West Yorkshire
- Lisburn, Northern Ireland
- Northwich, Cheshire
- Norwich, Norfolk
- Oxford, Oxfordshire
- Perth, Scotland
- Poole, Dorset
- Rochdale, Greater Manchester
- St Helens, Merseyside
- Surrey Quays, Greater London
- Sutton Coldfield, Warwickshire
- Taunton, Somerset
- Workington, Cumbria
- Wrexham, Wales
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