Tenby looks set to lose its TGJones store, in what would make it the first of south-west Wales’ seven at-risk branches to go.
Closing-down sale signs offering 30% off some items are up in the windows at 7 High Street, as first reported by the Tenby Observer.
Letting particulars published by retail property advisers Calan seek a new tenant for the shop at £32,500 a year, on terms to be agreed subject to vacant possession, and say the premises “is to be refurbished”. The 2,002 sq ft unit has a rateable value of £19,000.
TGJones has not announced the store’s closure or a closing date.
The Tenby branch was one of seven across the region left waiting on landlord rent deals when the High Court approved the chain’s rescue plan at the start of July, alongside stores at Swansea’s Quadrant Shopping Centre, Carmarthen’s Guildhall Square, Llanelli, Neath, Bridgend and Haverfordwest.
Up to 150 of the chain’s stores are expected to close under the plan. None of the seven local branches has been confirmed for closure by the chain.
Under the approved restructuring, rents are being cut by between 15% and 75%, and landlords who refuse the new terms can end their leases instead, which is where most of the closures were expected to fall.
The shop has traded from 7 High Street since 1927, opening as WHSmith almost a century ago.
The stores were rebranded TGJones after Modella Capital bought WHSmith’s high street business last year in a £76 million deal that required the 234-year-old name to go. WHSmith lives on at airports and railway stations.
A rescue plan ‘running on fumes’
The High Court approved the restructuring on 1 July after hearing the retailer faced a cash shortfall of nearly £8 million within days. Tom Smith KC, for TGJones, told the hearing the business was “highly distressed” and “running on fumes at the moment”.
The chain employs 4,700 people, and hundreds of jobs are expected to go. WH Smith has refused to fund enhanced redundancy payments for staff who lose theirs, leaving those affected facing the statutory minimum.
The closure threat reaches beyond the shops themselves: the Quadrant, Neath and Carmarthen branches all host Post Office counters.
In Pembrokeshire, the chain’s other branch, at Haverfordwest’s Riverside Quay, was also on the at-risk list.
Wales has 26 of the chain’s stores, anchoring some of the most prominent pitches on their high streets.
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