More than 11 per cent of chain shops in Scotland failed to reopen after the lockdown in the first months of this year.
There were 99 units, 4.7 per cent of the total, that closed permanently while a further 143, or 6.8 per cent, did not immediately start trading again after the restrictions on non-essential retail were lifted.
Of those that did not open straight away the evidence suggested that owners felt the costs of re-starting outweighed the potential revenue they would bring in.
Research by PwC, the accountancy firm, and Local Data Company, a retail analytics specialist, tracked more than 2,100 chain stores, defined as having five or more locations, across the country.
They said 88.5 per cent of the shops they monitored started trading again once they were able to do so in April. That compared with 82.9 per cent which reopened immediately following the relaxing of the 2020 lockdown in June of that year. Last year 4.6 per cent were permanently closed and 12.4 per cent classed as temporarily shut.
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The most recent data showed that high streets had 5 per cent of outlets which permanently closed compared with 7.1 per cent in shopping malls and 4.8 per cent across retail parks.
Jason Higgs, the head of retail at PwC in Scotland, suggested the sector continues to face pressure even though trading has resumed. “With the pandemic accelerating the shift to online retail, it’s encouraging to see so many outlets emerge from the third lockdown by opening their tills,” he said. “However, as we enter the crucial festive trading period we may still be influenced by emerging Covid variants, and retailers are facing a Christmas crunch with potential shortages of stock driven by import logjams and staff shortages”
David Lonsdale, director of the Scottish Retail Consortium, said: “Scotland’s retail destinations have been clobbered during the pandemic, with shopper footfall and retail sales still down on pre- pandemic levels and with one in six stores now lying vacant.
“The problem remains most acute in our larger towns and city centres which have felt the impact of office workers working from home.”
