US cut-price jewellery seller Claire’s wrapped-up the closure of its last 154 stores in the UK and Ireland on Monday, leading to 1,300 job losses, the company’s administrator said.
After arriving in the UK in 1991, the low-cost accessories and ear-piercing retailer became a fixture of British town centres, particularly popular with teenage girls.
But the company had already shut another 145 shops and cut roughly 1,000 jobs in the wake of the bankruptcy of its American parent company last year, according to the Press Association, at a time of a wider crisis for UK high street retailers confronted with online competition.
“As of 27th April, all Claire’s standalone stores in the UK and Ireland have ceased trading,” a spokesperson for the administrator, Kroll, said in a statement.
“All store employees have been advised of redundancy.”
Though Modella Capital partially bought out Claire’s UK subsidiary in September 2025, the investment firm swiftly threw in the towel a few months later, placing the chain under administration in January 2026.
Across the English Channel, the French branch of Claire’s was placed under administration in July 2025.
The Spanish subsidiary declared itself insolvent in September.
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