The Staples sign has been removed in the city of Plymouth and will be replaced with an Office Outlet sign.
Plymouth Herald reported that an era had ended as the Staples store closed and came under the new ownership of Hilco Capital which is one of 106 stores now under their control.
Staples in the UK had annual sales of around £200 million ($253/€226 million) with 1,100 people employed by the company. However, the business was failing and the company’s accounts showed a “pre tax loss of £5 million ($6/€5.3 million)” during 2015 and the losses in the previous year were even higher despite online and B-B sectors showing better performance.
Hilco Capital, a US company, bought the “staples estate” November 2016 and is restructuring the business. Meanwhile, Staples continues to close stores across North America with a total of 70 preparing to close down.
Plymouth will see a new stationary outlet opening soon called Smiggle but this Australian store is mainly aimed at children and has been estimated to be worth about £1.5 billion ($1.9/€1.7 billion) in the UK market.