Some stores will shut, and some people will lose their jobs.
A year after private equity firm Modella Capital purchased WHSmith's high street operations for £40 million and rebranded them as TGJones, the company now plans to close up to 150 of its 480 stores — a contraction that places hundreds of livelihoods in uncertainty and raises enduring questions about whether financial engineering alone can revive the struggling soul of the high street. The closures arrive not as a sudden shock but as the latest chapter in a longer story of retail's painful reckoning with rising costs, shifting habits, and the limits of reinvention. That Modella Capital is simultaneously navigating the collapse of Claire's, another brand it acquired to rescue, only deepens the question of who bears responsibility when turnaround promises meet the unforgiving arithmetic of commerce.
- Up to 150 TGJones stores — roughly a third of the entire estate — face closure, putting hundreds of jobs at immediate risk across communities that depend on them.
- Modella Capital points to a convergence of pressures: hostile trading conditions, government-driven cost increases, geopolitical disruption, and the self-inflicted wound of a rebrand that eroded the public recognition built over decades under the WHSmith name.
- The firm's credibility as a retail rescuer is under strain — its stewardship of Claire's ended in a second administration after catastrophically weak Christmas trading, casting doubt on its turnaround model.
- Workers and local leaders are left in limbo, with no announcement yet on which specific stores will close or which jobs will disappear, as the restructuring plan slowly takes shape.
- Modella Capital insists it is working to preserve as many positions as possible and stabilise the strongest part of the estate, but the gap between stated intent and concrete action remains wide.
A year after acquiring WHSmith's high street operations for £40 million, Modella Capital is preparing to close up to 150 of the 480 stores it rebranded as TGJones — a retreat that puts hundreds of jobs at risk and casts a long shadow over a turnaround that was meant to revive one of Britain's most familiar retail names.
The separation from WHSmith had seemed orderly enough. The parent company withdrew to focus on its profitable travel retail business in airports and transit hubs, while Modella Capital took on the high street estate and gave it a new identity. But the new name proved costly. The company now argues that rebranding to TGJones damaged public recognition at precisely the moment the business could least afford confusion, compounding the pressure of rising operating costs and a difficult trading environment shaped by government policy and geopolitical instability.
The restructuring, the company says, is designed to preserve the healthiest stores and create a leaner operation. But no decisions have been announced about which locations will close or how many people will lose their work — leaving employees and communities in a state of prolonged uncertainty.
The situation is made more uncomfortable by Modella Capital's parallel difficulties with Claire's, the accessories retailer it acquired after its collapse, only to place it back into administration following weak Christmas trading. For a firm that markets itself as a specialist in rescuing struggling retail brands, the pattern raises serious questions — not just about TGJones, but about whether the expertise required to stabilise beloved, battered high street names is truly present, or whether what follows acquisition is simply a slower, managed form of decline.
A year after buying the high street operations of WHSmith for £40 million, the private equity firm Modella Capital is now planning to shut down roughly a third of the stores it acquired. Up to 150 of the 480 locations will close as part of what the company calls a necessary restructuring—a move that puts hundreds of jobs in jeopardy and signals trouble for a retail turnaround that was supposed to breathe new life into the aging bookshop chain.
The stores were rebranded as TGJones after Modella Capital took over the high street business in March 2025, with WHSmith itself retreating to focus exclusively on travel retail—the profitable shops in airports, train stations, and other transit hubs where it has long thrived. The separation seemed clean enough at the time. But within months, the new owner found itself contending with what it describes as a hostile retail environment. In a statement to the BBC, a Modella Capital spokesperson acknowledged that the decision to close stores had "not been taken lightly," but blamed the brutal economics of brick-and-mortar retail, rising operating costs driven by government policy, and the ripple effects of recent geopolitical instability.
There is another culprit in the company's telling: the name change itself. Modella Capital argues that rebranding the stores from WHSmith to TGJones damaged public recognition of the business, undermining sales at a moment when the chain could least afford it. The company says the restructuring plan is designed to preserve the strongest part of the estate and create a leaner, more sustainable operation. But the human cost remains uncertain. The firm has made no final decisions about which stores will close or how many jobs will be lost, though it says it is trying to preserve as many positions as possible. Still, the language is clear: some stores will shut, and some people will lose their jobs.
This restructuring arrives against a backdrop of broader struggles at Modella Capital itself. The firm also owns Claire's, the jewelry and accessories retailer, which it acquired in September 2025 after the business collapsed into administration. Modella Capital's own stewardship of Claire's proved short-lived. After what the company described as "alarmingly" weak Christmas trading, it placed Claire's back into administration—a striking failure for a firm that positioned itself as a turnaround specialist. The TGJones situation now raises uncomfortable questions about whether Modella Capital has the operational expertise or market timing to rescue struggling retail brands, or whether it is simply managing decline across a portfolio of struggling stores.
For the communities served by these 480 locations, and for the employees who staff them, the next months will bring uncertainty. Modella Capital says it recognizes the impact on colleagues, their families, and the neighborhoods these stores inhabit. But recognition and action are different things. The company has not yet said which stores will survive and which will not, leaving workers and local leaders in limbo as the restructuring unfolds.
Citações Notáveis
The restructuring plan is designed to protect the substantial core of the store estate and create a stronger, more sustainable business that can continue to serve customers for years to come.— Modella Capital spokesperson
We recognise the impact this uncertainty will have on colleagues, their families and the communities we serve.— Modella Capital spokesperson
A Conversa do Hearth Outra perspectiva sobre a história
Why did Modella Capital blame the name change so heavily? Couldn't a bookshop work under any name?
The name matters more than it sounds. WHSmith had decades of brand recognition—people knew what to expect when they walked in. TGJones was a blank slate. In a declining retail sector, you don't have time to rebuild a brand from scratch.
But they paid £40 million for the business. Didn't they have a plan for the stores before they bought them?
They must have thought they could turn it around. The problem is the timing. They took over in March 2025, rebranded, and within a year they're closing a third of the estate. Something went wrong faster than they anticipated.
What does it say that they also failed with Claire's?
It suggests a pattern. Modella Capital bought Claire's thinking they could fix it, but Christmas trading was so weak they gave up. Now they're doing the same thing with TGJones—cutting losses rather than investing in recovery.
Are they being honest about government policy and geopolitical events, or is that just cover?
Probably both. Those factors are real—retail is genuinely harder right now. But they're also convenient explanations. The truth is they may have overpaid for a business in structural decline.
What happens to the people working in these stores?
That's the part Modella Capital hasn't answered yet. They say they want to preserve jobs, but 150 closures means hundreds of people will likely lose work. The company is being vague about timing and specifics, which usually means the news isn't good.