Mixed fortunes for two Chichester high street shops

Topshop has closed down in East Street after the national chain, along with Topman, Miss Selfridge and HIIT, was bought out by online fashion retailer, Asos, in an £265 million deal.

ASOS has been branded ‘disgusting’ by Topshop store staff, after they were only officially informed of their job losses via social media and media reports.

Meanwhile, it has been confirmed that Hays Travel’s Chichester branch, in South Street, is not one of the 89 across the country earmarked for closure. 

The UK’s largest travel agent said leases on stores in Worthing and Burgess Hill would not be renewed but its other branches would remain open. 

The chain has branches across Sussex including in; Bognor Regis; Midhurst; Crawley; Horsham; Haywards Heath; Littlehampton; Goring; Hassocks; Eastbourne;  Hastings; Hove; Brighton and Seaford. 

For staff affected by the store closures, the business is ‘discussing a number of options for alternative work’.

Following the expiry of the licence, the company had ‘deferred reviewing the performance’ of the former Thomas Cook shops, it acquired in October 2019 to see if business returned in 2021.

However the third national lockdown and travel ban leading to major holiday operators suspending flights and holidays, meant the company ‘had to act’.

Dame Irene Hays, owner and chair of Hays Travel, said: “We had hoped the business would bounce back in January and it has not.” Read more here