Lloyds Pharmacy puts all 1,300 sites under threat of closure in another blow for post-Covid UK high street

Lloyds Pharmacy has put all of its 1,300 sites at risk of closure in another major blow for the highstreet. 

According to reports in The Sun, the private equity owner of the embattled chemist has launched a “strategic review of its entire UK store base”. 

It’s understood that process could lead to a sale of all of its pharmacies or closure and also place some 17,000 jobs at risk. 

It comes as the beleaguered chain, which is owned by Aurelius Group, already revealed this year that it would close 237 of its sites which operate within Saisnbury’s branches. The chain also closed over 76 stores in 2022. 

A number of popular high street stores have announced store closures already this year due to due to a rapid change in consumer behaviour and a surge in living costs. 

“Covid plus the recession and inflation has had a serious effect on the retail industry,” Professor Joshua Bamfield, director of the Centre for Retail Research, previously told City A.M. 

According to the groups research, some 15,000 stores are set to close this year and the centre has forecasted that 2023, will mirror the challenging climate of last year which was characterised by “belt-tightening consumers” due to the cost of living crisis. 

He explained: “Our figures show that shop closures relate to the reorganisation of retailing. Retailers  have decided that they have too many shops and need to operate in a different way. But that doesn’t mean that online retailing is going to take over the world.

City A.M . has approached Lloyds Pharmacy for a comment.