High street giant with 47 UK stores closing down in town centre | UK | News

Outdoor clothing store Millets will disappear from the main street of a popular seaside town within weeks. Signs on the door of the store in Southsea, Portsmouth, announced a closing sale with 20% off “absolutely everything” to clear all stock before the last trading day on February 28.

Specializing in clothing, footwear and equipment across 47 stores across the UK, Millets has been a staple on Palmerston Road, minutes from the beach, since 2011. When the news was shared on local Facebook page Love Southsea, locals had mixed reactions.

One disappointed customer wrote: “I bought my camping gear there years ago, how are their shopping experience going? Stop renting buildings so high and have stores on our streets, not everyone can access it online.”

But someone else asked: “You have to ask people, they say it’s sad but how many of these people shop there regularly?”

A third replied: “Depends on what you mean by regular. Not the kind of shop you go into every week…maybe 2 or 3 times a year!”

Millets, founded in Southampton in 1893, also closed six stores in early 2025, four of which reopened and rebranded as sister company GO Outdoors.

Another blow to Southsea in a few daysby closing Lloyds Bank on the same road The banking group attributed its widespread closures to the rise in online banking.

A spokesperson for Lloyds Banking Group previously said: “The way people bank has changed, with more than 21 million customers choosing apps to manage their money.”

It was stated that in addition to the application, customers can use any Lloyds, Halifax or Bank of Scotland branch, Post Office or banking centers for daily banking transactions and deposit cash at more than 30,000 PayPoint points.