Just-bought discount retailer TOFS (The Original Factory Shop) could see its UK store count drastically reduced.

New owner Modella Capital is contemplating a Company Voluntary Arrangement (CVA) to close a number of its 180 retail units, according to Sky News.

The variety retailer, which sells a number of major brands including L’Oreal beauty and Adidas sportswear, was acquired last month from private equity firm Duke Street for an undisclosed sum. Modella’s now understood to be in talks with business adviser Interpath on options for the retail group, including a potential CVA, which would result in cutting the retailer’s 1,800-strong workforce.

At the same time, Modella is also drawing up plans for a radical restructuring of the retailer. This will also include discussions with landlords over rent reductions for a number of surviving stores. Reports also claim a TOFS distribution centre will be a focus of those restructuring plans.

TOFS, which was founded in 1969 and then acquired by Duke Street in 2007 for £68.5 million, is understood to had also come under the bidding scrutiny of usual suspect Frasers Group, Baaj Capital and Poundstretcher, which is owned by the investment group Fortress the report also said.

Modella and Interpath have so far yet to comment.

Dubbed the ‘Oscars of the Tailoring World’, this week’s Golden Shears Awards saw Huntsman apprentice Joanna Spreadbury scoop the coveted top award and its accompanying  £3,000.

Second place (Silver Shears and £2,500) was awarded to London College of Fashion student Tilda Jonathan, with Connock & Lockie apprentice Kasia Hughes winning the Rising Star prize along with £2,000. 

Held at the Merchant Taylors’ Hall, the 50th (biannual) competition “unites skilled fashion students and apprentice tailors, providing a platform to showcase their creative vision and technical excellence and celebrates the next generation of UK tailoring and fashion talent”. 

Attracting nearly 90 entries, 25 finalists were selected based on their technical excellence to compete in the Golden Shears Final 2025. It featured a live catwalk show judged by industry leaders, choosing the evening event’s three winners.

Jenny Casebourne, head of Portfolio at the event’s supporter The Pollen Estate, said: “As custodians of Savile Row and surrounding streets, the next generation of tailors are important to our community and these awards are a testament to craftsmanship in the UK.

“We are excited to help nurture the future generations in their knowledge and skills of suit making and we look forward to seeing more young talent entering a career in tailoring.” 

Ahead of an anticipated rise in job losses from this spring, ever-shrinking retail industry employment numbers have gone down by 249,000 in five years and are 70,000 lower than at the same point last year, according to the latest ONS figures.

And if that’s tough to take, news that more than 12,800 UK stores closed in 2024, albeit 1,277 fewer than 2023 figures, although extra costs are expected to take a toll this year, a further study by Greenstreet for the advisory firm PwC suggests.
 
The latest official UK statistics showed there were 2.88 million jobs in retail in December, traditionally the Christmas-related high point of the year. Across the four-quarter average, there were 1.5 million part-time, down 142,000 on five years ago, and 1.34 million full-time jobs, down 106,000 in a half-decade.

Helen Dickinson, Chief Executive at the British Retail Consortium, said: “The number of retail jobs in 2024 was the lowest since the data began in 1996, despite total jobs in the economy continuing to rise. While this decline in retail jobs should be a concern to communities everywhere, worse could be yet to come, again pointed to rises in employer NICs and increased National Living Wage.”

She highlighted a recent survey of retail finance directors that showed half were planning hiring freezes or cutting jobs, both in head offices and stores across the UK.
 
Dickinson added: “Jobs cuts are likely to fall disproportionately on part-time roles. 200,000 part-time jobs have already been lost over the last seven years, and up to 160,000 more part-time roles are at risk in the next three years. This matters… as the government’s welfare reforms aim to increase the numbers in work, flexible retail roles offer a first rung back onto the career ladder.”

Meanwhile, the PwC report suggests the rate of store closures is forecast to rise again, also citing the government’s tax-raising Budget.

2024’s net closures were the second-lowest in a decade – beaten only by 2022 when retail destinations bounced back after the coronavirus pandemic lockdowns.

The study didn’t include specific forecasts for the number of openings and closures for 2025 but predicted that costs, including a rise in the Minimum Wage and extra National Insurance contributions from April, would accelerate the rate of closures.

Kien Tan, a senior retail adviser at PwC, said: “Announcements by retail and hospitality operators over the past couple of months suggest that many of them are being more cautious with their opening plans, partly because of higher operating costs following last year’s budget, which is why openings are likely to slow in 2025. New sites may be less viable.”

Tan said the pace at which units on high streets, retail parks and in shopping centres had become empty “appeared to have stabilised” post-pandemic and that it was now matching the rate at which shopping and services were moving online.

PwC said that, in the long run, the number of stores and services in retail destinations would continue to shrink by 2% a year, let by banks, chemists, pubs and car/motorbike services/dealerships accounted for half of all net chain store closures.

The twice-yearly report using data from Green Street (formerly the Local Data Company), tracks more than 200,000 chain stores in more than 3,500 locations to gain an insight into the changing landscape of high streets, shopping centres and retail parks. However, the report for PwC doesn’t include independent stores, which are tracked separately.