A WELL-KNOWN high-street brand will disappear from St Helier this weekend.
Clarks Shoes, which has closed a number of UK shops in recent years amid reported financial troubles, has confirmed it will close its store at 20-22 King Street this Saturday.
The building is believed to have been operated as a shoe shop since the reign of Queen Victoria, and has been leased by Clarks since 2000.
A spokesman for the retailer said: “Clarks confirms its store in Jersey will close on 27 July.
“We’d like to thank our loyal customers who have shopped with us at our Jersey store over the years, and we’ll be delighted to continue to serve them with our full range of products online.”
The Clarks business operated across 1,400 stores and franchises internationally at its peak.
But by July 2023, the brand had just 320 UK stores – with several more shops having closed during the past 12 months.
Last month trade news provider Retail Gazette said that Clarks had reported a pre-tax loss of £39.8m in the year to 31 December 2023, down from a profit of £35.9m the year before, with 150 staff being placed at risk of redundancy and three senior executives leaving their roles.
The company was founded in 1825 by Cyrus Clark in the village of Street in Somerset, and was a family-run business until 1993.
Islanders reacted to the news with mixed emotions when it was shared on social media. Some bemoaned the loss of another high-street store, and the bad timing of the closure just a few weeks before the new school term.
Another poster said: “I’m not bothering with school shoes, my kids will go in black trainers, they last longer and are cheaper – Clarks have really let me down this year with quality.”
Clarks declined to reveal how many staff were employed at the shop, nor the scale of any potential job losses.
