The owner of Britain’s longest surviving DVD rental store is surprised that business is booming - 40 years after they opened. Colin Richards, 71, opened TVL Allstar Video in Haverhill, Suffolk, in 1984 and it originally started as a company that leased video tapes to other shops. He then decided to start renting films and the store now has around 8,500 DVDs including Forrest Gump - which has been borrowed at least 2,000 times.
But while the rise of streaming services like Netflix largely killed off the movie rental business, Colin says he has a steady flow of loyal customers who keep him in profit. And his store in Haverhill, Suffolk, is still renting out DVDs to families for £2 a week - 11 years after Blockbuster shut down.
Colin said: “I thought the business would be a five year thing. Then I thought we would we would transition. But that obviously didn’t happen. When Netflix came about, I think we had already established ourselves in the market place as we had a huge membership. Sky and Netflix really didn’t worry us at all really.”.
The video store is believed to be the last video store in the UK but Colin believes they have stayed open because they have ‘diversified into other things.’ Alongside renting DVDs, the dad-of-two also sells stationary, repairs scratched DVDs discs and runs a successful photocopying and printing service. The store has also turned into a hub for the local community and Colin says they have customers who come in for a chat ‘on a daily basis.’.
