Shut-up shops

Six in 10 stores in Sir Philip Green's collapsed empire standing empty

- GRAHAM HISCOTT

NEARLY six out of 10 shops from Sir Philip Green's collapsed retail empire are empty, research shows.

Arcadia, which included Topshop, Topman, Burton and Dorothy Perkins, fell into administration in November 2020, with 444 shops in the UK.

As of January this year, just over 59% of them were vacant, analysis by Local Data Company shows. That equates to more than 260 stores lying empty.

Just under 36% have been taken over by another retailer, and almost 5% have been "repurposed". The Local Data Company report also looked at the fate of BHS department stores. The chain went to the wall in 2016, a year after Sir Philip sold the business to serial bankrupt Dominic Chappell for £1.