A HIGH street name is to close one of its Hampshire stores.

New Look, which has stores in Southampton and Eastleigh, is to close its store in Romsey from early next month.

Although the store didn’t give a reason why or how many staff would be made redundant, it is understood it had been profitable, and that most staff would be relocated to the other stores around Hampshire.

A spokesperson for New Look said: “I can confirm that the Romsey New Look store is due to close on June 7. This is all the information I am able to provide.”

It follows news that a number of chains that have been struggling since the turn of the year, leading to closures from Carpetright, Toys R Us and Prezzo.

Romsey’s town centre manager Mark Edgerley said he believed the empty unit wouldn’t stay that way for too long.

He said: “Retailing is a complex and evolving process, in recent decades high streets have relied on reducing numbers of national chains rapidly expanding the number of shops they have. Fortunately for the case of New Look I understand that the majority of the staff have been reallocated to other nearby stores.

“I am confident that the New Look store will be a popular unit and hopefully will be back in use within months.

“In Romsey we are fortunate to have very few empty shops. of the current six empty town centre units, at least four are subject to planning decisions or being converted to new uses. Unlike many towns, our problem is a potential shortage of units.”