A POPULAR British retailer which has returned to the high street after collapsing into administration is set to open more shops.
Shirtmaker T.M. Lewin is gearing up to open more stores in London, Manchester and Edinburgh after staging a dramatic comeback.
T.M. Lewin is eyeing up further locations after opening a new store in London[/caption]
The retailer recently opened its first new store in the capital since 2020, when it fell into administration and shut all of its 66 branches.
The site in Bow Lane, City of London, stocks a range of formal shirts, office-wear and a new Clerkenwell Jacket.
But it is now eyeing up further locations across the UK in an expansion drive.
Dan Ferris, T.M. Lewin’s managing director, told The Times, which first reported news of the additional openings: “A big part of our three-year plan is to expand the real estate very quickly.
“We’re looking for another couple this year, and thereafter it’ll just be about opening as many additional outlets as we can.”
T.M Lewin was founded by Thomas Mayes Lewin and Geoffrey James Lewin in London in 1898, and supplied the RAF and Army with uniforms during the First World War.
The company made its shirts in Southend, Essex until the late 1980s, when production moved overseas.
However, the impact of the coronavirus pandemic led to the retailer falling into administration in 2020 and going online-only.
The administration process led to the closure of T.M. Lewin’s 66 branches.
In 2022, the business was forced to call in administrators for a second time as shoppers shifted to working from home.
RETAILERS MAKING A COMEBACK
T.M. Lewin is not the first retailer to stage a comeback in recent years despite a challenging economic backdrop.
The Centre for Retail Research said more than 13,000 stores, the equivalent of 37 each day, shut their doors for good in 2024.
This was after more than 10,400 stores closed permanently in 2023, the centre said.
However, some retailers have been bucking the closure trend and opening stores across the UK.
Others have been making major comebacks after going bust too.
Cath Kidston opened up a brand new store last October, after going into administration in June 2023.
Meanwhile, earlier this year ASOS revealed plans to relaunch a Topshop website.
The two names have joined a host of other brands that have announced they will make some form of return.
Toys R Us, Cath Kidston and M&Co all said last year they would be making a comeback after previously falling into administration.
Major brand Wilko is already back on the high street after closing 400 stores in 2023.
Its new owners, CDS Superstores, have opened branches across the UK.
RETAIL PAIN IN 2025
The British Retail Consortium has predicted that the Treasury’s hike to employer NICs will cost the retail sector £2.3billion.
Research by the British Chambers of Commerce shows that more than half of companies plan to raise prices by early April.
A survey of more than 4,800 firms found that 55% expect prices to increase in the next three months, up from 39% in a similar poll conducted in the latter half of 2024.
Three-quarters of companies cited the cost of employing people as their primary financial pressure.
The Centre for Retail Research (CRR) has also warned that around 17,350 retail sites are expected to shut down this year.
It comes on the back of a tough 2024 when 13,000 shops closed their doors for good, already a 28% increase on the previous year.
Professor Joshua Bamfield, director of the CRR said: “The results for 2024 show that although the outcomes for store closures overall were not as poor as in either 2020 or 2022, they are still disconcerting, with worse set to come in 2025.”
Professor Bamfield has also warned of a bleak outlook for 2025, predicting that as many as 202,000 jobs could be lost in the sector.
“By increasing both the costs of running stores and the costs on each consumer’s household it is highly likely that we will see retail job losses eclipse the height of the pandemic in 2020.”
