Clinton Cards agrees to shut 38 stores in deal to avoid total collapse

Clinton Cards will close a fifth of stores as its tries to avoid going bust, after a court approved restructuring plans that should see it survive for at least another year.

The card shop based in Loughton, Essex, has already shut 156 stores after being sold back to its US owner through a fast-track insolvency process in December 2019.

And the latest move - first announced as a plan three weeks ago, but now confirmed - means a further 38 of the remaining 179 shops will close their doors for good.

Thousands of jobs will be saved by the deal, which means the retailer will not have to make full payment of business rates and rent for its shops that are now set to shut.

The plan, reported by the Evening Standard yesterday, means landlords and councils for the 38 unprofitable sites will get 8.6p for every pound owed by Clintons.

Financial advisors said the high street staple was currently insolvent, and its plan had been presented by restructuring experts from FRP Advisory and law firm Jones Day.

The business has struggled to stay afloat even as the card seller slashed costs and considered a tie-up with Paperchase in December 2022, which was eventually bought by Tesco in January after it entered administration itself.

Clinton Cards was founded in 1968 when Don Lewin – a door-to-door salesman – opened a card shop in Epping, Essex, after borrowing £500 from a friend.

He named the store after his son Clinton – and the retailer grew to 800 shops before floating on the London Stock Exchange in 2004, when it was valued at £150million.

But the business then slumped and sank into administration in 2012 when it had about 784 stores. It was bought by US giant American Greetings and 350 were shut.

The firm has permanently closed branches in the likes of Dorchester, Bolton and Ayr in the past 18 months. The list of the next 38 closures has not yet been confirmed.