Major British newspaper, comics, magazine and bookseller TG Jones has begun a major round of store closures, with 150 of its 480 shops expected to close. However, comic and magazine publishers have also begun developing strategies to counter this blow to their high street sales outlets.
As we’ve previously reported here on downthetubes, the stores closing are victim to past inept management by former owner WHSmith and the dubious activities of current owner Modella Capital, whose business practices, while not illegal, surely merit not just contempt but government investigation for their serial damage to the high street.
Currently, TG Jones employs some 4700 staff across over 400 stores, mostly in the UK. It previously warned that the overhaul would put jobs at risk and one third of its high street operation is expected to shutter.
WHSmith sold its High Street operation to Modella Capital, but retained the brand name for its travel stores in airports and rail stations, necessitating a name change choice that was derided by some industry brand experts, and the new owners admitted had caused confusion for customers.
Among the confirmed upcoming casualties, which will also see some towns losing post offices, are Aylesbury, Ayr, Bath, (the Post Office to move to new premises), Basildon, Beaconsfield, Bishop’s Stortford, Bridgnorth, Brixton, Bury St. Edmunds, Cambridge, Cardigan (the property listed for sale but failing to achieve the asking price at auction in August 2026, WHSmith in situ since 1926, taking over the property from bookseller Joseph Clougher), Chepstow (its closure announced after the property decided to sell the building with a list price of £206,000), Clevedon, Droitwich, Exmouth, Frome, Greenford, Inverness, Ipswich, Helston, Hinckley, Hull, Kilmarnock, Leicester, Maldon, Malvern, Market Harborough, Melton Mowbray, Redcar, Redhill, Rustington, Southampton, Southend, Stamford, Stroud, Swindon, Tenby, where WHSmiths had operated since 1927, Truro (once considered Cornwall’s flagship WHSmiths store, a new location being sought for its Post Office), Uckfield, Wellington, Wells (closing 19th September 2026), Windsor, Wrexham and York.
Stores in cities such as Coventry have already closed before August 2026.
However TG Jones has confirmed some stores do not face the axe, including Bognor Regis, Bromsgrove and Honiton. The company plans to invest £32.4m in its remaining estate, including store refurbishments, new tills and self-checkouts, IT systems, security upgrades and work on its Post Office concessions.
TG Jones secured high court permission to lay waste to its operation, sorry, “restructure”, in July, but this didn’t stop Modella from buying Flying Tiger Copenhagen, and eyeing up the purchase of another retailer, Knightsbridge-based Harvey Nichols.
In August 2026, Completely Retail News suggested Modella might be in the running to buy Poundland, describing it as a “logical buyer” of the retailer, having bought its Polish sister company Dealz several months ago. (The specialist trade journal has documented many of Modella’s acquisitions including Claire’s and Hobbycraft, initially framed as “rescue plans” that soon led to store closures.
The Retail Gazette, also detailing the judgement, noted 6th August that “rescue plan” means TG Jones is expected to operate from a reduced estate of 302 stores under the restructuring. Its business plan forecasts turnover of £238m in the first year, remaining at the same level in year two before rising to £257m in year three.
Previous businesses Modella managers have run into the ground include Tie Rack.
In August, Mr Justice Hildyard, who approved rescue plan, said turnaround plan came with “very considerable” risks in achieving a turnaround.
“This has all the hallmarks of an adventurous equity play,” wrote Mr Justice Hildyard in his judgment, The Guardian reported, adding that the group’s turnaround plans “might strike the sceptic as more in the nature of generic aspirations than concrete grounds for confidence in a successful outcome”.
Post Office Closure Statement
“We fully recognise the challenging trading conditions that TG Jones and many other High Street retailers are facing at the moment, The Post Office said in a statement about impending store closures in June.
“Following the launch of its Restructuring Plan, TG Jones has already confirmed that, regrettably, seven of its stores will close, as will the Post Offices within those stores, around mid-July.
“We know how important our products and services are to the local community. We have already advertised these vacancies, which have generated interest from interested retailers… We are taking the proactive step of advertising the opportunity to express an interest in operating a Post Office branch. This is to ensure that, should a branch need to close, we are in the strongest possible position to minimise disruption to customers by identifying a replacement operator as quickly as possible.”
Publishers fight back
The trade title Better Retailing reported last month that the magazine industry has begun preparing measures to redirect customers to nearby independent retailers where stores close. The title reported postcode-level analysis has already been completed to identify retailers best placed to capture displaced sales.
Publishers will also receive 12 months of EPOS sales data showing the likely impact of individual closures, while consumer leaflets, retailer point-of-sale packs and door drops are being prepared to encourage shoppers to buy magazines from alternative outlets.
“The plans are intended to maintain consumer access to magazines while minimising disruption to publishers and retailers,” Better Retailing noted. “Retailers close to affected TG Jones stores could also be offered additional magazine fixtures to help expand their range and capture displaced sales.
The title reported last week that shops near TGJones closures have won extra magazine sales, thanks to the industry scheme designed to protect customers.
Magazine distributor Frontline is directing affected shoppers to nearby stores, and helping them find their preferred titles.
This item was last updated on 2nd September 2026 adding more known store closures and some known to remain open
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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.
Categories: British Comics, Comics, downthetubes Comics News, downthetubes News, Magazines, Other Worlds
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Really is awful this whole fiasco. The two TG Jones I had access and shopped at in Hull and Driffield have both shut. The WHSmith in Hull Interchange has scaled back on its comics and genre magazine selection. Now if I want to buy titles like Starburst, SHIFT, the Doctor Who specials/bookazines, and the 2000ad specials I’ll have to order them online which costs more as nowhere round me stocks them.
When Modella bought the chain, they assured publishers major improvements to the stores were in the works. Sadly, none of those promises appear to have been delivered on.
Well yeah. All they did was change the signs to ‘TGjones’ but inside were still the same tired, cluttered old stores. I think its just really sad what’s happened and I wonder how long it will be before some magazines will fold due to not having as many stores to sell in. It’s s shame there’s no other big newsagent around to come and fill the gap left on the high streets.
I’m in Hull too, that branch closed a few weeks ago, Driffield was just yesterday. I think our nearest TG Jones store is the Beverley one now. Luckily the WHSmith in the Interchange had the Beano Summer Special and Desperate Dan bookazines. The annuals will be a problem though. I usually get the Classic Beano and Dandy one with one of the others on the two for £12 deal. Cheaper than that book alone. I’m going to miss that offer.
Luckily for me my local newsagent sells the weekly Beano and Doctor Who Magazine.
Yeah there’s nowhere in Driffield now to buy Doctor Who magazine,any of the panini marvel reprints,Shift,the 2000ad specials and many others. Will have to make a trip to Beverly to pick stuff up or take out more subscriptions but then you’re down to the mercy of our terrible postal service.
James,
Try “The Works” for annuals if you have a branch locally. They certainly stock the Egmont titles closer to Christmas anyway, I couldn’t say for sure about the DC Thomson ones.
Good luck!
As comic archivist Jon Carpenter has noted on the downthetubes Facebook page, “There’s just not enough viable national retailers of scale to fill all the units anymore. Once upon a time, when a shop closed the unit was almost always quickly relet to another chain. Retailers used to wait for a gap to open before they could move into a town or city. New space was added and established retailers held on to their existing foothold despite upwards only rent increases. Supply and demand.
“Now there is more capacity than viable shops to fill them and chains are much more comfortable walking away when leases come up for renewal. And CVAs allow them to walk away or ‘bully’ landlords (who also have to make a profit, maintain buildings, pay cleaners and security, meet H&S obligations etc etc) into rent reductions or ‘holidays’.
I still have one by me.
I’m wondering if theses been some distribution problems recently, the batch of Commando comics that featured the Erlking story etc – only one copy of each arrived, except for the Harrier one, which didn’t arrive at all.
Never know this time happen before.
The shop is usually practically empty. I’m amazed we still have it.
Stocks of publications are pretty responsive to Electronic Point of Sale (EPOS) data, so if a particular title’s sale is low, orders will be reduced.