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Rent-to-own retailer BrightHouse has announced it is to close 30 stores putting up to 350 jobs at risk.
The news of the company plans to close 10% of its portfolio over the next two months comes after it reported a pre-tax loss of £22.1m from £19.9m in the same period the previous year.
Last year the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) announced it would be changing the amount of interest rent-to-own retailers could charge customers after it found 400,000 people were paying an extra £23m a year on household goods. These changes are expected to be implemented in April.
A spokesman for BrightHouse said: “We have taken the very difficult decision to close 30 stores in the next two months. All employees affected by our proposals have been informed. We are working to redeploy as many people as possible into alternative roles, but redundancies will be inevitable.
“We will be speaking to all customers affected by the store closures and either transferring them to another local store or serving them online. We’re also introducing PayPoint, allowing customers to pay BrightHouse in cash at 28,000 locations across the UK.”
The stores which will be closing:
Aylesbury
Basingstoke
Bognor Regis
Bromley
Cowley
Dunstable
Eccles
Gravesend
Haverfordwest
High Wycombe
Leeds Merrion
Macclesfield
Maidstone
Newark
Newport, Isle of Wight
Nuneaton
Perth
Rugby
Scarborough
Seaham
Selby
Southport
Stafford
Stirling
Thetford
Trowbridge
Watford
Weymouth
Whitehaven
Yeovil
