The disability charity Scope is consulting on plans to close slightly more than half of its charity shops within 18 months, after its retail operations were forecast to make a £1.5m loss this financial year.

The consultation, which is open until the beginning of March, includes proposals to close 77 of the charity’s 138 shops.

If the plans go ahead, up to 200 of the disability charity’s 458 retail staff could lose their jobs. About 2,000 of the charity’s 4,337 shop volunteers would also be affected. 

Mark Hodgkinson, chief executive of Scope, told Third Sector that although its charity shops had made a “real contribution to raising vital income” to support the charity’s work, several external factors have “definitely made trading harder”.

He said: “There’s a lot more of us doing online shopping and that means, in some cases, there’s less people on the high street. There’s also actually more competition through online in the pre-loved retail market too.”

Hodgkinson also highlighted the increased costs that had affected high-street trading. 

“The inflation rates that we’ve seen in the last few years have increased things like energy costs and, in some cases, rent,” he said. “That’s flowed into salary costs as well, because we remain committed to supporting the Real Living Wage for our colleagues.”

Hodgkinson said the charity had been incrementally reviewing its shops’ performance and closing those that were not hitting targets on lease renewal, having reduced its shops from about 230 in 2019 to 138 today.

“But when we look at the shops going forward, we think there are quite a substantial number of them that are going to move, or have already moved, into a loss-making position,” he said.

Collectively, the charity’s retail operations have been forecast to make a net loss of £1.5m this financial year, Hodgkinson said, leading to the “tough decision to correct that in one go”.

He said the charity had looked at all of the credible forecasts for the next three years and was confident that the remaining 61 shops across England and Wales would continue to be profitable.

If the proposals go ahead, some shops would close nearly immediately after the end of the consultation, Hodgkinson said, with the remainder closing the following financial year – with all closing over a period of just 18 months.

Hodgkinson said staff and volunteers in the affected shops were briefed this week. 

“We want to try to give those colleagues and volunteers the best opportunities to maybe find alternative options,” he said. 

He added that he planned to reach out to other charity leaders with a retail presence, saying that Scope hoped that a “large number of our colleagues and volunteers will find other homes if this consultation goes through”.

Hodgkinson said: “We need to make sure our money and our resources are ultimately focused on the biggest impact we can deliver. 

“If that means we have to shift where resources are allocated over time, that’s not a decision we’re going to take lightly, but we’re not going to shy away from it either, which is why we have gotten to this point.”