TG Jones wins court approval for sweeping store rent cuts

The High Court approved TG Jones’s restructuring on July 1, clearing the former WH Smith high-street chain to cut rents across most remaining stores and close up to 150 underperforming shops. The plan is meant to keep roughly 300 of the business’s 450 high-street sites open.

TG Jones, bought by Modella Capital for £76 million and rebranded after the takeover, launched the restructuring in early May after 12 months of highly challenging trading conditions. The company said it faced an £8 million shortfall without court approval and would have struggled to pay bills due at the end of June. Modella Capital had already advanced £10 million in April 2026, and the court ruling unlocks a further £15 million in support.

Landlords at many of the remaining shops must accept steep rent reductions under the deal, including what the company described as a rent-free period at about 120 stores for three years. That level of concession had drawn sharp pushback from major commercial landlords, including British Land, and was widely viewed as a hard-edged rescue plan aimed at preserving most of the estate rather than every store. TG Jones employs about 5,000 people, so the closures put hundreds of jobs at risk even though the exact number has not been disclosed.

The ruling lands in the middle of a wider retail retrenchment that has become familiar far beyond Britain. As town centres struggle with high occupancy costs and the pull of online shopping, chain stores are being forced to shrink, renegotiate, or walk away from weaker sites, much as American mall operators and main-street retailers have done for years. TG Jones’s plan shows how survival now depends on landlords absorbing pain as well as retailers.

WH Smith PLC, the quoted parent that kept the travel business, remained under pressure on July 1, with its shares trading around 395p, well below their level a year earlier. For a 234-year-old British high street institution, the court approval bought time, but only by shrinking the footprint that once defined it.