Retail in crisis: the story so far…

This year has been dubbed as ‘the year of the CVA’ by analysts as a number of high street brands have announced store closure programmes and administrations.

The latest development sees Debenhams announcing its plans to close up to 50 underperforming stores over the next three to five years after reporting record losses.

This follows House of Fraser filing proposals for a company voluntary arrangement process in June, putting 31 stores at risk of closure, before the business was bought out of administration by Mike Ashley.

High street retailer Marks and Spencer has announced plans to close 100 of its stores by the end of 2022, specialist floor retailer Carpetright is going ahead with its CVA, while supermarket giants Sainsbury’s and Asda have confirmed they plan to merge in a blockbuster deal that would hand Asda’s current owner Walmart around £3bn in cash and a 41% stake in the combined business.

Other chains affected include Select, Bargain Booze, Toys R Us, New Look, Jamie's Italian, Prezzo, Carluccio's, Byron and Maplin.

EG takes an in-depth look at the retail crisis, bringing you the latest data and analysis on the retailers as more announcements are made.

There is no doubt that the high street has taken a battering over the past few years. But what are the challenges ahead? EG's retail and industrial analyst James Child gives covers what's been happening in 2018. Click here to read the full analysis

EG, using Radius Data Exchange, has mapped the retail risks across the UK. Click here to interact with the full map

Uncovering the UK’s most resilient retail spots

The retail sector has suffered a tumultuous start to 2018. The year of the CVA has been compiled by multiple store closures up and down the country and many of the high street’s best-loved stores plunged into administration.

The death of the high street has been talked up for the past few years, but there are survivors out there.

EG has analysed take-up data from Radius Data Exchange to plot the most resilient, cyclical and best-performing cites and sectors over the past decade. Click here to read more analysis and view the data findings.

RIGHT: Explore the data surrounding the average sizes of retail units (sq ft) v 10-year average