Britain’s biggest toy chain with more than 160 UK stores to close town centre site for good in days
CLOSING DOORS
The store has been praised as a 'community asset' for its charitable donations
- Milad Sherzad, News Reporter
BRITAIN'S biggest toy chain is set to shut one of its town centre sites for good in just days.
The Entertainer, which operates more than 160 stores across the UK, announced its outlet in Barrow-in-Furness, Cumbria, would close early next month.
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Retailers have struggled to keep stores open in 2025 due to difficulties with economic conditions, with The Entertainer having shuttered seven of its other stores over the past six months.
The store in Barrow had opened in the former Argos unit of the town centre in 2017.
But now, closing down posters have been pictured in the windows of the much-loved store ahead of its closure on May 3.
Keith Stenhouse, Head of Region at The Entertainer, said: "We are sad to be closing our Barrow in Furness store as of 3rd May and would like to thank our customers and staff for their loyalty and support.
"We’re proud of the service we’ve offered and are committed to supporting our employees through this situation."
He explained that the company had to, very rarely, look at shutting standalone stores that were "no longer profitable".
In addition to its 160 physical stores, the brand also operates 861 shops in large Tesco outlets across the UK.
The Barrow store had gained notoriety in the past for its many large donations to charity, reports The Mail.
In the year it opened, it handed over a large haul of toys to the children's ward at Furness General Hospital in a Christmas gesture.
John Edwards, who was a manager at the store for a number of years, said he was "incredibly sad" to see it close, calling the site an "asset" to the community.
He explained the company had also made large donations to local charities and was involved in Barrow BID, a group which aims to revitalise the town centre.
John added: "It was always important to me it wasn’t just a shop, it had to be an experience and be somewhere kids were excited to go - it’s a huge shame to lose that."
This comes as the chain already shuttered a number of stores over the past six months.
These included outlets in East Kilbride, Dundee, Birmingham Fort, High Wycombe, Huddersfield, Croydon and Sutton Coldfield.
In January, its branch in Luton Point shopping centre shut for good, sparking dismay among local residents.
One local said, after hearing the news: "Luton is on its knees".
The British Retail Consortium has predicted that the Treasury's hike to employer NICs will cost the retail sector £2.3billion.
Research by the British Chambers of Commerce shows that more than half of companies plan to raise prices by early April.
A survey of more than 4,800 firms found that 55% expect prices to increase in the next three months, up from 39% in a similar poll conducted in the latter half of 2024.
Three-quarters of companies cited the cost of employing people as their primary financial pressure.
The Centre for Retail Research (CRR) has also warned that around 17,350 retail sites are expected to shut down this year.
It comes on the back of a tough 2024 when 13,000 shops closed their doors for good, already a 28% increase on the previous year.
Professor Joshua Bamfield, director of the CRR said: "The results for 2024 show that although the outcomes for store closures overall were not as poor as in either 2020 or 2022, they are still disconcerting, with worse set to come in 2025."
Professor Bamfield has also warned of a bleak outlook for 2025, predicting that as many as 202,000 jobs could be lost in the sector.
"By increasing both the costs of running stores and the costs on each consumer's household it is highly likely that we will see retail job losses eclipse the height of the pandemic in 2020."
Another added that they were "gutted" the branch was closing.
Andrew Murphy OBE, group chief executive at The Entertainer, explained the store had closed after its lease agreement came to an end.
Speaking at the time of the closure, he said: "Like most large national retailers, we continuously assess potential new locations while deciding whether to renew those shops which have reached the end of their lease arrangements."
It comes just months after the chain completed its roll-out of concessions stands at more than 850 Tesco stores across the UK.
Many retailers have been struggling to keep stores open this year, in light of the recent hikes to employer's National Insurance Contributions.
On April 6, the rate employers must pay for the tax rose from 13.8 per cent to 15 per cent.
This decision, announced in Rachel Reeves' autumn budget, has led to a number of shop closures.
Earlier this month, A.G. Meek announced its store in Gloucester would close on April 12 due to the rise in National Insurance.
St Peter's Hospice also said it would close one of its locations in Bristol "due to the significant increases in National Living Wage and National Insurance".
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