Jack Wills to sell four stores in order to cut costs

Fashion retailer, Jack Wills is to sell four stores in order to make up for a store expansion which saw it increase its stores by a quarter, despite the fact it was making an underlying loss of £11m in 2017.

Jack Wills is looking to assign leases to new tenants on stores in Brighton, Chester and Worcester and is hoping to find cheaper premises for a move elsewhere within the locations. The fashion retailer is also looking to sell the lease on its Cheltenham store.

A property agent told The Times that the leases would be “very difficult” to get rid of, adding: “Why would another retailer want to pay those rents when other landlords have empty space nearby where they will get better terms?”

Since being taken over by private equity firm BlueGem in 2016, Jack Wills has seen its store numbers increase to 110. BlueGem along with Italian investor Giorgio Girondi, injected £20m of emergency funding in 2018. The private equity firm said Jack Wills had no plans to pull out of Brighton, Chester, Cheltenham and Worcester completely.