Poole shop to shut again only five years after it was revived following retail chain’s administration. The department store chain Beales is to close its last remaining shop, in Poole, for the second time as it blamed rising costs linked to Rachel Reeves’s budget for a failed rescue attempt. The 144-year-old retail institution, which first opened its doors in Bournemouth in 1881, collapsed into administration in January 2020, leading to the closure of all its 22 stores. The store in Poole, on the south coast of England, reopened under new ownership later that year, followed by two other outlets – in Peterborough and Southport – which later closed in 2023 and last September respectively.
Tony Brown, the chief executive and majority owner of the revived Beales, said he was closing the final outlet in Poole in May because of the “additional costs being foisted on us”. In October, Reeves announced an increase to employers’ national insurance contributions, the rise in the legal minimum wage and a reduction in business rates relief from April. Brown said these changes not only directly affected Beales’ own costs but suppliers facing higher labour costs had pushed up prices, too.
Brown said the Poole store, which employs 25 people, could have broken even this year but the additional costs were “the last nail in the coffin”. The chain had already been lossmaking since its revival in 2020, before the changes announced in Reeves’s budget. “It is not a secret that large department stores are very expensive to run and difficult to keep going,” he said. “We are a microcosm of what is going on across retail. If you are not a big business, you can’t absorb those costs.” He said Beales would continue to trade online.
Jeff Moody, the commercial director of the British Independent Retailers Association, said: “The closure of Beales is, tragically, unlikely to be an isolated incident. With the reduction in business rates relief from 75% to 40% set for April 2025, alongside these other tax increases, many of our members are facing impossible decisions about their future. “This is a critical moment for British retail, and we urgently need policymakers to recognise the devastating impact their decisions are having on our high streets.”.
The closure of Beales’ final store comes after a tough period for department stores. House of Fraser has closed at least 30 branches since 2018, including the historic Jolly’s in Bath in December, and Debenhams disappeared from the high street in 2021. John Lewis has also closed 16 department stores since the start of the coronavirus pandemic, cutting the size of the chain to 36. Sign up to Business Today.
Get set for the working day – we'll point you to all the business news and analysis you need every morning. after newsletter promotion. The independent group that owns Morleys in Tooting and Brixton, and Selbys in Islington plans to close its Tooting branch this spring. Department stores are expected to come under further pressure from planned changes in business rates under which large stores with a rateable value of more than £500,000 will pay more from April next year. The changes will lower rates for those operating from smaller, cheaper premises.
