‘I absolutely love this place’ says shopper as a fashion chain with 40 branches to shut doors in busy shopping centre

A MAJOR fashion chain with 40 branches is to shut its doors on a busy shopping centre location for good.

Menswear specialist Blue Inc is set to close its store in Cumbernauld, Scotland.

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The retail chain went into administration in 2016 which resulted in the closure of multiple stores, but it was bought out in 2019.

Closing down signs have now appeared on the shop windows of the store located in the Antonine Shopping Centre, reports local news outlet the Glasgow Times.

The Antonine Shopping centre is popular among locals and has an annual footfall of 3.5million people.

One shopper said: “‘I absolutely love this place” and another described the centre as “underrated” with some “really good shops”.

No closure date has yet been confirmed.

The Sun has reached out to Blue Inc for comment.

It comes as many other major retailers are shutting up shop for good and leaving the high street.

Some stores are being replaced or relocated while others are just disappearing from towns and cities for good.

Argos, Next, Jack Wills and Poundland are all set to shut down branches this year.

The news comes as 6,000 retail outlets have brought down the shutters since 2018, according to the British Retail Consortium.

Last year several brands collapsed such as Wilko and Paperchase and there is more to come in 2024.

We have a full list of shops that are set for closure in 2024.

January has already seen health and beauty chain Boots shutting down some of its stores.

Plus, Co-op, Clintons, and HMV have shut down some of its locations.

What about store openings?

It is not all bad news though, as some retailers have been able to weather the storm and also open up some new branches.

B&M opened two new stores in Porthmadog and Washington on January 18 and January 26 respectively.

Supermarket giant Asda is also on track to open 1,000 more sites throughout the UK and Northern Ireland by March this year.

Meanwhile, Wilko also has plans to open more stores in January after pulling up the shutters on branches in Plymouth, Luton and Exeter.

The Fraser Group has also recently confirmed it will be opening another “new concept” store amidst a wage of store closures.

The retail giant owned by Mike Ashley announced it will be taking over the former John Lewis site at Queensgate Shopping Centre, Peterborough. 

The Frasers group officially opened another concept store in September last year. 

The department store opened in Norwich and the group confirmed it also opened sites in Blackpool. 

Another site in Sheffield is due to open this year with the retailer taking on a former Debehmans space. 

This post first appeared on thesun.co.uk