Popular fashion chain Select is closing both its stores in Bristol as part of a national programme of closures.
The stores in Broadmead in the city centre and within the Broadwalk Shopping Centre in Knowle both have launched closing down sales, with up to 70 per cent off everything.
The chain says it offers a wide range of high street fashion, shoes and accessories for women at great prices, but the business has been struggling in the past year or so, with stores around the country reportedly closing or announcing closing down sales.
Last week, stores in Kidderminster, Crewe and Thornaby put up similar closing down sale posters, and staff posted messages on the stores’ social media channels thanking customers. Two stores in Hull announced closures the week before that.
The closure of the store in Broadwalk is a further blow to the South Bristol shopping centre, which looks set to be demolished in the next couple of years. Its owner has planning permission to close the shopping centre, knock it down and build more than 800 flats in its place, but has agreed to go back to the drawing board and come back with scaled-back plans after reaching an out-of-court agreement with local campaigners who were taking out a Judicial Review about the controversial way planning permission was obtained.
The closure of the store in Broadmead will mean another empty shop premises in the Bristol Shopping Quarter, which is also set to undergo radical change in the coming years, with the demolition of both the old Debenhams building and the entire Galleries shopping centre getting the go-ahead.
Select Fashion first emerged on the British fashion scene in the 1980s. As of 2024, it operated around 100 stores nationwide and is currently owned by Turkish entrepreneur Cafer Mahiroğlu. Select fell into administration back in 2019 blaming “tough” conditions on the high street. At the time this put 1,800 jobs and 169 stores at risk.
It was later bought out of administration by Genus UK Limited. According to the latest filings on Companies House, Select Fashion entered into a Company Voluntary Arrangement (CVA) last summer. A CVA allows a business to pay off its debts over a fixed period of time while still trading.
It’s a common way to help struggling businesses and often it involves things such as negotiating rental costs with store landlords. According to local reports, a number of Select stores closed last year, including stores in Ipswich, Kent, Cwmbran, and London.