BrightHouse stores in High Wycombe and Aylesbury set to close
BrightHouse has announced the closure of its stores in High Wycombe and Aylesbury.
The closures were announced on Tuesday 5th January 2019 as part of a wider store closure programme by the rent-to-own retailer.
The BrightHouse store in High Wycombe was located in the High Street and the Aylesbury store was in the Hale Leys Shopping Centre.
Thirty BrightHouse shops in total will close over the next two months throughout the United Kingdom with the loss of 350 jobs which represents about about 10% of the company’s total estate.
A clampdown on rent-to-own retailers by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) in 2018 to cap the amount of interest that rent-to-own retailers charge customers and tough trading conditions on the High Street are believed to be the drivers for the store closure programme.
The interest cap ruling from the FCA means that from April 2019 the maximum interest paid must not be greater than the cost of the product itself. For example if a television costs £400 then customers will pay no more than £800 in total. The price charged for the goods must also not exceed the median (middle) price charged by three mainstream retailers.
Before the closures the company had over 270 stores and employed around 3,000 people in the UK.
The thirty stores that will close are as follows :
- Aylesbury
- Basingstoke
- Bognor Regis
- Bromley
- Cowley
- Dunstable
- Eccles
- Gravesend
- Haverfordwest
- High Wycombe
- Leeds Merrion
- Macclesfield
- Maidstone
- Newark
- Newport (IOW)
- Nuneaton
- Perth
- Rugby
- Scarborough
- Seaham
- Selby
- Southport
- Stafford
- Stirling
- Thetford
- Trowbridge
- Watford
- Weymouth
- Whitehaven
- Yeovil