Lifestyle retailer Fat Face will extend its closing times during the festive break and plans to shut 40 stores on Boxing Day, Drapers has learned.
The Boxing Day closures, which take place on the same day its winter Sale period starts, are four times greater than last year’s pilot, when 10 shops shut on the day. The exact store locations are expected to be confirmed next week.
Fat Face boss Anthony Thompson told Drapers it is also closing stores at 2pm on Christmas Eve to prepare for its Sale period, marking the first time the retailer will shut its doors earlier than its high street rivals.
Meanwhile, 210 of Fat Face’s 222 UK stores will close on New Year’s Day. Thompson said that although it has closed some stores on 1 January in previous years, it has “not been done on such scale” before.
The retailer outlined its plans to staff in an internal conference last week.
Thompson said: “We are preparing to go into the season at full price, as we believe customers want price integrity at Christmas.
“Family and price integrity are very important issues to us. We’re taking the opportunity to give time back to both our customers and our teams to spend with their families, as well as reassuring customers they can buy from us with confidence, and get real value with their purchases.”
The retailer has also vowed not to slash prices during discounting extravaganza Black Friday (24 November) and in the lead-up to Christmas again this year.
If any of the retailer’s prices change in the period from 15 November to 23 December, it has said it will refund the difference for customers.
It emerged in January that Fat Face’s stance against discounting before Christmas delivered 7.9% growth on full-price sales for the 54 days to 24 December 2016, compared with the same period in the previous year.
The retailer said in January that it had a record week of full-price sales in the week to Christmas Eve, and had 22% less inventory going into Sale than 2015.
Fat Face also operates six stores in the US, bringing total store count to 228. These will remain open on Boxing Day and New Year’s Day.
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