The British Heart Foundation plans to close 150 shops across the UK over the next two financial years, marking a permanent retreat for part of a retail network that still spans 640 stores nationwide. About 90 of those shops are due to shut by the end of March 2027, with the remaining 60 to follow by March 2028.

The timing matters because the charity is making the move now while high street trading remains under pressure, and it is also pressing ahead with a larger shift toward online sales through its website and eBay. Dr Charmaine Griffiths said the current trading conditions are exceptionally challenging for retailers, but she added that the charity’s main focus must stay on its life-saving research programmes.

Griffiths also said the shops matter to colleagues, volunteers and communities across the UK, describing them as places where people come together to donate, shop and volunteer and help fund work on cardiovascular disease. That makes the closures more than a routine property decision: they touch a retail arm that has long been part of the charity’s public face.

The British Heart Foundation said the closures were driven by rising operating costs and changing shopping habits, and that some locations had become financially unviable to keep open. Even so, it said its broader financial health remains robust, pointing to continued strength in fundraising and legacy income as it cuts central support teams that underpin the retail operation.

That balance explains the friction at the heart of the move. The charity is shrinking one visible part of its footprint while insisting it is not under wider financial strain, and it wants to keep a substantial high street presence even as it redirects more selling online. Which shops will go has not been disclosed yet; the charity said affected staff will be told first, and only then will it publish the closure list.