Victim to the vagaries of private equity investment, eight TG Jones (formerly WHSmith High Street) stores have closed as part of a restructuring plan that could lead perhaps 150 store closures and job losses, as owner Modella Capital battles to turn around the chain.
Among the immediate closures are the store on Westgate Street in Ipswich, which also housed a post office, which closes on Saturday 6th June.
The closures follow an admission by Modella that the forced move away from the WHSmith name had hit consumer awareness, despite what it described as improvements to the customer proposition. Behind the scenes, as we previously reported, there have been top level staff staff changes at the investment company as it sought to improve the fortunes of the stores.
Blaming “weak consumer spending” and rising operating costs, Modella set out its plan cor cost reductions and potential closures to landlords yesterday, the restructuring backed by more than £35m of financial support.
Modella claims the new investment will support the TG Jones turnaround, and help preserve the majority of the chain’s store estate.
“The survival of this iconic 234-year-old business is our imperative,” a TG Jones spokesperson claimed, adding the restructuring would protect most of the retailer’s store estate and build a stronger business.
The Guardian and Telegraph reported that eight stores are set to close immediately, while around 100 more are being asked to accept full rent holidays as part of the restructuring.
TG Jones, which currently employs some 5000 staff, is also understood to be seeking rent reductions across hundreds of other stores, with further closures possible if landlords reject the proposals.
A TG Jones spokesperson said: “The survival of this iconic 234-year-old business is our imperative,” adding that the restructuring was designed to protect the core of the estate and create a stronger, more sustainable retailer.
“While we continue to believe in the strength of the core business, TG Jones has experienced highly challenging trading conditions over the past year, along with many other brick-and-mortar retailers.”
A recent CBI survey notes British retailers reported the sharpest year-on-year decline in sales in more than 40 years as the Iran war raised households’ inflation fears.
Modella plan still requires creditor and court approval
WHSmith agreed to sell its British high street business to Modella in March 2025, then comprising 480 high street stores, for £76m last year. But WHSmith retained the brand name for their more successful Travel Stores operation in railway stations and airports, leading to the change to TG Jones, the name choice derided by some brand experts at the time.
Modella Capital held £12.8m in net assets in 2024, according to its most recent balance sheet. It also owns the freehold to the WHSmith headquarters on Greenbridge Road, Swindon, which the Swindon Advertiser reports has planning permission to be demolished so that a housing estate can be built on the land.
Modella’s restructuring plan, formulated with advice from consultancy Teneo and law firm Slaughter and May, still requires approval from creditors and the courts. The Guardian reported that industry insiders believe Modella had always intended to slim the chain down, potentially to around 350 stores, once restrictions linked to its WHSmith deal expire in June.
Private equity works by purchasing, restructuring, and selling companies to generate high returns, often outperforming public markets over long periods. It is a high-risk, 10-year investment model used by institutions. However, its methods – aggressive debt, cost-cutting, and layoffs – can be destructive to companies, earning PE a reputation as predatory, and some practices have raised concerns from voices across the political spectrum.
Rebranding issues part of wider woes?
While Britain’s high street businesses have faced significant challenges in recent years, there are concerns Modella underestimated those difficulties when it purchased the stores last year.
After the takeover was first announced, downthetubes understands TG Jones intended much more than just a shop sign change. Improvements planned included reevaluation of current floor layouts, more prominence of magazines and better promoting of product lines that are only available through newsagents, and attached post offices.
As reported by the Retail,Gazette, the private equity investor has seen failures to its wider portfolio, with fellow high street chains Claire’s and The Original Factory Shop both collapsing into administration. Their Hobbycraft property has also undergone store closures, as part of its own restructuring.
Customers saw little change to TG Jones stores beyond branding changes, and the company appears to have failed to reduce the number of lines on sale in its stores, which might have better served its interests. It also did not reverse WHSmiths policy of sidelining its Unique Selling Points – newspaper, magazine, comic, book and stationery sales – pushing those to back of stores, leading some customers to think they no longer sold them.
Announced Closures 2026
TJ JONES CLOSURES WE HAVE BEEN TOLD ABOUT (See comments below) – LAST UPDATE 16th May 2025: Ayr*, Coventry, Ipswich, Hull, Leicester, Southend and Tiverton
*Awaiting Confirmation
Head downthetubes for…
Most recent story at the top of this section
• ADDED Friday 15th May 2026: Business Matters – TG Jones faces bailiff threat as WH Smith successor buckles under unpaid tax bills
“In a 214-page restructuring dossier circulated to creditors last week, Modella Capital, the buyout house that snapped up the high street arm of WHSmith earlier this year, disclosed that the retailer is sitting on £3.4m of unpaid business rates, a further £4m owed to suppliers and an £8.4m tax bill that HMRC has so far agreed to defer. Add it together and the chain is in the red by the best part of £16m before the lights have so much as flickered.”
Business Matters Amy Ingham also notes the proposals have caused consternation in Westminster. Justin Madders, the former employment minister and a member of the Commons business and trade select committee, accused Modella of operating a “heads I win, tails the taxpayer loses” model.
• ADDED 13th May, The Guardian 13th May 2026: How new owner became all powerful in ‘high stakes’ attempt to revive former WH Smith chain
• NEW LINK Added Sunday 10th May: WH Smith made just £10m from sale of high street shops to Modella
The Sunday Times reports With TG Jones fighting to stave off collapse, documents circulated to creditors reveal WH Smith is unlikely to recoup anything close to the agreed £42 million
• Retail Gazette, 5th May 2026: TG Jones owner Modella Capital plots up to 100 store closures | Retail Gazette Modella-related stories
• The Guardian, 30th April 2026: Why your favourite brands are suddenly failing
Low-profile Modella has positioned itself as a key creditor, landlord and brand owner to struggling TG Jones as store closures and job cuts loom
• The Financial Times: How private equity tangled banks in a web of debt
Complex layers of leverage could pose a threat to the global economy
• The Spectator: Is private equity secretly running your life?
Hettie O’Brien delivers a broadside against the elusive financial force that owns almost 10 per cent of the UK economy
• House of Lords Library: Private equity: Role in the UK economy – House of Lords Library
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John is the founder of downthetubes, launched in 1998. He is a comics and magazine editor, writer, and Press Officer for the Lakes International Comic Art Festival. He also runs Crucible Comic Press.
Working in British comics publishing since the 1980s, his credits include editor of titles such as Doctor Who Magazine and Overkill for Marvel UK, Babylon 5 Magazine, Star Trek Magazine, and its successor, Star Trek Explorer, and more. He also edited the comics anthology STRIP Magazine and edited several audio comics for ROK Comics; and has edited several comic collections and graphic novels, including volumes of “Charley’s War” and “Dan Dare”, and Hancock: The Lad Himself, by Stephen Walsh and Keith Page.
He’s the writer of comics such as Pilgrim: Secrets and Lies for B7 Comics; “Crucible”, a creator-owned project with 2000AD artist Smuzz; and “Death Duty” and “Skow Dogs”, with Dave Hailwood.
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I always thought they’d play the masterstroke of pumping Hobbycraft products into the TG Jones stores but I guess Hobbycraft remaining in administration has interfered with that.
Really crummy news. My local store is closing in August. I work in another town which still has a TGjones which I don’t think is closing (I hope) so can still get my magazines but anytime I’m on holiday it means I’ll have to wait until I’m back at work. For others it’ll probably mean having to take out subscriptions if they can’t get hold of any magazines/comics anywhere. Of course this may affect a lot of publishers not having the stores to sell their titles in.
Yes, it’s going to impact smaller publishers, and titles who still sell a large amount of their print run on the newsstand, including comic publishers. Plus, in some places, the local area are losing their post office, too.
Update. The large TG Jones in Hull City centre is closing down which really surprises me as it has a large post office in it. This will affect publishers and titles such as Shift and The Phoenix which are not sold in the WHSmiths that are left, nor in supermarkets. Whether many titles can survive by subscription only we’ll have to see. Dark times ahead.
The Phoenix has built its success on its impressive subscription model, so it’s not as likely to be as impacted as other independent titles, although , of course, visibility on newsstands does help raise awareness. I’m more concerned for Commando, SHIFT, and the independent titles SHIFT has also distributed to TG Jones. It seems clear from press items elsewhere that Modella’s business model is not as conducive to improving the companies they have purchased as they would like their investors to imagine, and quite why they have not faced more scrutiny for the damage they have done to our high streets from government and regulators is mystifying.
Yeah, the one in the Prospect Shopping Centre is Hull is closing, and as a result the Post Office is being evicted too. Closing Down signs just went up today.
TG Jones in Coventry will close next month. Staff are understandably upset about it. We also understand the stores in either Hinckley or Leicester may be closing, too.
Signs have gone up in the Leicester City Centre store.
It started before TG Jones. Huddersfield lost its WH Smiths two years ago; it’s now a university town with a population of 150k where you can pretty much only get magazines from the supermarkets.
Yes, WHSmiths began closing a lot of stores and in some cases, Modella/ TG Jones have continued that, where the decision had already been made, as I understand it. These latest one are the result of the end of the 12 month moratorium on further store closures. It’s a great shame
downthetubes reader Brian Henwood tells us he has been told by one of the store employees told me that the Southend store will be closing mid July despite being a profitable shop.
“The problem is the council won’t lower the rent so both them and the post office upstairs are going,” he says. “Ironically the Post Office could have gone back to its old premises next door as it has been empty since they vacated it several years ago – but it was recently converted into a ‘Super Greggs’.”