Nine years years after opening, Swedish retailer Clas Ohlson is to close its Reading store. The closure marks the end of the homeware and hardware brand’s presence on the UK high street.
The shop, which replaced Woolworth in Broad Street in 2009, is one of six remaining UK outlets which the retailer is closing as part of its withdrawal of operations in the UK and Germany.
Chief executive Lotta Lyra, formerly an executive of Ikea, said: “After 10 years, the business in the UK is continuing to incur significant losses despite measures in recent years to optimise the store network.
“The evaluation of the pilot of four stores in Germany has revealed that the operations will be unable to deliver on plan and therefore the right conditions are not in place to achieve profitability. Against this background, the store network in the UK and Germany will be discontinued and in line with the new direction our presence in these markets will be concentrated to online shopping.”
“This direction will allow us to develop a scalable business model for the UK and Germany initially, and then later in other markets.”
Once they close from the Broad Street entrance to the Oracle until the junction at the Broad Street Mall will be eleven empty shop units.
No date has been given for the closure of the Reading store.
