Fashion chain with over 100 stores owned by Frasers Group to shut high street branch in weeks

A POPULAR fashion chain with more than 100 shops owned by Frasers is set to close.

USC clothing is due to close its shopfront at The Potteries Centre in  Stoke-on-Trent this summer.

Alamy

USC is the latest Frasers Group store to close[/caption]

The store, run by the Frasers Group, will shut this summer, although the exact date it will close is unclear.

A statement from The Potteries Centre read: “We’re disappointed to hear that USC at The Potteries Centre is closing down.

“This is a commercial decision taken by the brand. We wish their staff well.

“We’re always working hard to refresh our store line-up with new and exciting retailers to give our visitors the best possible shopping experience.”

Shoppers and locals have already expressed their disappointment at the most recent Frasers Group closure.

One said: “Everywhere you go places are boarded up it is becoming a ghost town.”

A second said: “Might as well close the Potteries Centre the way things are going.”

A third fumed: “Let’s face it Hanley’s gone cr*p no shops night life rubbish.”

A fourth added: “Last one out turn the lights off.”

And a fifth said: “Be nothing left soon.”

The Potteries Centre spokesperson added: “Over the last 12 months we have welcomed Flannels (part of the Frasers Group), Menkind, Coffee House and an updated innovative Vision Express store.

“In addition to this, a number of retailers have also committed to extend their leases with us including Superdrug, Pandora, Ann Summers, Lush, EE, Quiz, H&M, Soletrader, Vision Express and Jack & Jones.”

Frasers Group is going through a lot change across its UK brands.

It shut another USC branch in Stockton-on-Tees in December last year after launching a closing down sale.

And House of Fraser, also owned by Frasers Group, is set to close its store in Carlisle in May.

A Flannels site – also under Frasers – in Bolton, closed for the final time in the new year.

But they have opened new stores across the UK as well.

Shoppers have been visiting their “new concept” stores which sell brands from across the group including Sports Direct and Jack Wills.

Last September, it cut the ribbon on one of the stores in Norwich and has since opened two more of the stores in Blackpool and Sheffield.

Plus, it has plans to open one of the concept stores in a former John Lewis site at Queensgate Shopping Centre, Peterborough by the end of 2025.

The firm also took on the famous Compton House in Liverpool earlier this year and will reopen the site as its flagship Sports Direct branch.