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Sandra Halliday Published
April 8, 2025
The number of retailers going insolvent in Britain has leapt 19% in the past year with a spate of big-name failures including The Body Shop, Ted Baker, Farfetch, Matches and Wilko.
This insolvency rate is the highest in five years and has intensified in just the past few months – a situation not expected to substantially improve until interest rates come down.
Retailers have had to deal with major challenges in recent years, the pandemic being the biggest of them, followed by the cost-of-living crisis. But while relatively few businesses collapsed during the pandemic due to government support measures, analysts always predicted that the fallout would continue for many years into the future. And with the cost-of-living crisis – and some of the effects of Brexit – having piled on the misery for many, insolvencies have accelerated.
A new report from Mazars, the international audit, tax and advisory firm, on Monday said the number of insolvencies of retailers increased to 2,195 in 2025/24 (that is, the 12 months to the end of January this year).
And the small list mentioned above shows how fashion has suffered in particular, but also how retailers across the price sale have been affected. Even luxury hasn't been immune with the problems at Matches and Farfetch illustrating that, as well as showing how online retailers are struggling.
Mazars said that many retailers have been hit by a combination of increased costs and cautious household spending among consumers. Higher interest rates are also causing significant problems for any retailer that has a significant amount of debt that’s either pegged to the level of interest rates, or that's coming up for refinancing and will likely move to a much higher interest rate.
Rebecca Dacre, Partner at Mazars, said that inflation may be moderating, but “retailers are still not out of the woods as many are continuing to face rising staff costs”. The national living wage for over 23-year-olds increased this month to £11.42 per hour, up 9.6%.
That comes alongside data showing sluggish retail sales in last year’s Golden Quarter and little improvement since then.
And as mentioned, the report also highlighted that while recent years saw physical retailers more heavily affected by insolvencies, e-tailers “have also come under severe strain from rising costs”.
The number of e-commerce insolvencies has reached its highest level in five years, hitting 615 in 2025/24, a big increase on the 521 insolvencies reported in the previous year. As well as the insolvencies of Matches and Farfetch, Wiggle the online bike retailer went into administration in October last year.
Dacre added: “We are unlikely to see the retail sector trading comfortably until interest rates start to fall. Despite inflationary pressures easing, high interest rates and low consumer spending continue. The rise in the National Living Wage is the largest on record and some face a sharp rise in business rates from April.”