Store closure rate falls to around one per week
The rate of store closures across Scotland has slowed to just over one per week but fewer new shops are opening, a new report has found.
The rate of store closures across Scotland has slowed to just over one per week but fewer new shops are opening, a new report has found.
The analysis of Scotland's high streets by financial services firm PwC found e-cigarette shops, maternity wear stores and those selling golf equipment reported the largest rises in 2015.
Money shops were shutting at the highest rates, with an almost 50% drop in the year, followed by men's clothes shops. There was a 6.2% overall drop in the number of pubs, down to 92.
The figures are taken from the Local Data Company, which surveyed more than 65,000 businesses with five or more outlets across the UK.
Across Scotland, the number of overall store closures fell from six per week in 2014 to just over five per week in 2015.
A total of 280 shops closed down in the year while 221 opened, leading to an overall reduction of 59 shops by December 2015 or a 1.84% decrease, compared to 66 in 2014.
Only Perth bucked the trend of a decline in store numbers in the country's main towns and cities as eight stores closed and nine opened, a 0.62% increase.
Edinburgh and Falkirk were the largest losers, with an overall drop of -16 and -12 stores respectively. Paisley had a net reduction of -5.6% while shop numbers dropped by 3.89% in
Ayr, 2.07% in Dundee, and 1.76% in Aberdeen. Glasgow had one of the smallest overall reductions, with just four more closures than store openings, a 0.46% drop.
Bruce Cartwright, head of business recovery services at PwC in Scotland, said: With the notable exception of Brantano Footwear (where a number of stores were successfully preserved following sale out of administration), there have been fewer high-profile closures.
We do see some growth, albeit many of these are small operations or franchises such as stores offering forms of vaping or e-cigarette advice.
The likelihood is that this increase is a short spike rather than the beginning of a large, ongoing trend.''