Ugh. Another one down. I swear I'm starting to feel like a retail obituary writer these days.
Tessuti, that fancy-pants fashion retailer owned by Mike Ashley's Frasers Group, has officially shut up shop at Sheffield's Meadowhall Shopping Centre. They went out with a bang though - slashing prices by a whopping 70% before pulling the plug. I actually popped in there last summer and nearly dropped £180 on a Moschino jacket that I absolutely did not need. Thank god my girlfriend talked me out of it.
The Death Spiral Nobody Talks About
The store's now listed as "permanently closed" on Google, which in retail-speak is basically the digital equivalent of seeing those sad "Everything Must Go!" signs plastered across shop windows. Remember when those used to be rare? Now it's like spotting pigeons in Trafalgar Square.
Tessuti was one of those places that made you feel simultaneously cool and poor. They stocked all teh premium brands - Moschino, Versace Jeans Couture, and all that streetwear stuff like Billionaire Boy's Club that my nephew keeps banging on about.
Funny enough, Tessuti hasn't always been under Frasers Group's umbrella. JD Sports used to own it until 2022 when Ashley swooped in and bought it along with 14 other brands for £47.5 million.
Ashley's Slash-and-Burn Approach (Surprise, Surprise)
After Frasers took over, they did what they always do - closed about a third of the stores. Classic Ashley move. I interviewed a retail analyst back in 2018 who predicted exactly this pattern. His response: "Ashley doesn't buy brands to nurture them, he buys them to extract value."
The closures hit places like Stockport, Bolton, Bury, Warrington, and Liverpool. Last year they even shuttered their flagship store in Belfast.
Listen. I'm not saying Frasers Group is deliberately running these brands into the ground, but... well, their track record speaks for itself.
Is Anyone Actually Surprised Anymore?
Frasers Group is basically the Grim Reaper of retail at this point. They own House of Fraser (which has been on life support for years), Sports Direct (Ashley's original cash cow), and Jack Wills (remember when that was the posh university student uniform?).
Sports Direct is also closing stores left and right. Their Cambridge location shuts this Friday, and they've already closed shops in Coventry, Stroud, and High Wycombe.
Even Flannels (another Frasers baby) announced earlier this year they're closing three Junior stores across Bluewater and both Westfield locations. I spent $4K in their Westfield store over the past two years... guess I contributed to their bottom line and they still couldn't make it work!
The High Street Massacre Continues...
The whole high street is basically a retail version of The Hunger Games at this point.
According to the Centre for Retail Research, a mind-boggling 13,479 stores closed for good in 2024. That's 37 EVERY. SINGLE. DAY.
Of those, 11,341 were independents (the real tragedy) while 2,138 were larger retailers.
Over half closed because of insolvency. Poor buggers.
I walked down my local high street yesterday and counted seven empty units that were thriving businesses just three years ago. It's like a ghost town on what used to be our busiest shopping street. And we all know why - online shopping, ridiculous costs, and people like me writing articles instead of actually going out and supporting local retailers.
The irony isn't lost on me.
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