The store chain which replaced WH Smith on the UK\u2019s high street could be set to close 100 stores.<\/p>\n
WH Smith, which was founded all the way back in 1792, opted to sell off its high street business in 2025 to focus on airports, train stations and other travel locations.<\/p>\n
Its 480 UK stores were bought by Modella Capital, which renamed them TG Jones, a play on the original name.<\/p>\n
But Sky News has reported this weekend that TG Jones is on the brink of a refinancing deal following poor trading figures in 2026. The deal, if sealed, would restructure the business and see an estimated 100 stores closed.<\/p>\n
The deal is said to have been backed by the Post Office, which has counters in many TG Jones stores, including the Leeds city centre store visited by the Express after a significant overhaul and investment.<\/p>\n
Sky said that advisers at Teneo and lawyers at Slaughter & May are working on the restructuring plan. Its sources said that Modella had held talks with several parties about replacing existing lender Secure Trust Bank (STB), with the European investment group Aurelius \u2013 which already owns the sports shoe retailer Footasylum.<\/p>\n
Back in March, it was reported that TG Jones was considering closing 80 of its stores due to weak trading.<\/p>\n
WH Smith sold its high street stores to Modella last year, but held onto its travel shops, including in airports and train stations, which was the more profitable part of the business.<\/p>\n
The deal valued the high street chain at around \u00a376 million and resulted in it being rebranded to TG Jones.<\/p>\n
Modella admitted that economic conditions had been \u2018tough\u2019 and pointed to \u2018adverse\u2019 government policies.<\/p>\n
A spokesman for Modella said at the time: \u201cThe economic conditions for all retail businesses are tough.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe combination of cost inflation, weak consumer confidence and adverse Government fiscal policies puts significant pressure on all retailers.<\/p>\n
\u201cAgainst this backdrop, the management of TG Jones is working hard to turn around this important retail business, and they are drawing on the best available advice in doing so.<\/p>\n
\u201cTG Jones\u2019 management and Modella Capital are committed to building a sustainable future for this important UK business.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The store chain which replaced WH Smith on the UK\u2019s high street could be set to close 100…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":564966,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[84,59,88381,1125,193681,56,193682,54,55,124612,191916],"class_list":["post-564965","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-business","tag-gb","tag-modella-capital","tag-store-closures","tag-tg-jones","tag-uk","tag-uk-high-street-store-closures","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom","tag-wh-smith","tag-whsmith"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/564965","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=564965"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/564965\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/564966"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=564965"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=564965"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=564965"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}