AN ICONIC department store has been forced to shut its last branch after 140 years of trading due to Rachel Reeves’ Budget hikes.
Beales has confirmed its last ever shop, located in the Dolphin Centre shopping mall in Poole, Dorset, will be closing for good today.
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It marks the end of an era for the one of the oldest faces of the British high street, which first opened in Bournemouth in 1881.
Struggles began for the retailer when it entered administration in January 2020, forcing the closure of 22 of its 23 shops.
The shop in Poole reopened the same year after relocating to the shopping centre and remained the only Beales store standing.
Despite weathering the financial storm for the past five years, Reeves’ economic policies proved to be the final nail in the coffin for the iconic departmental store.
Beales hit back at the Chancellor’s economic policies by announcing a “Rachel Reeves‘ Closing Down Sale”.
On social media, the popular chain joked that it had fallen victim to the Budget “black hole”.
The closure will also affect an NHS clinic, which is located on the top floor of the Poole store.
It was set up in 2021 to reduce waiting times, but will now move to St Mary’s hospital on June 5.
Beales chief executive Tony Brown explained that business had become “unviable” following the Chancellor’s Budget last October.
He said: “This, coupled with the risks and uncertainty of further tax increases in the coming years, have left us no other option.
“We have been working with the Dolphin Centre, who have been supportive, along with our investors to ensure an orderly exit.
“Our team has been informed, as have our suppliers. We will ensure the exit is managed and no one will be left with a financial loss.”
Below the advert for the “Rachel Reeves Closing Down Sale”, which included discounts of up to 80%, the high street favourite launched a scathing attack on the Chancellor.
A caption on the store’s Facebook page read: “Our closing sale is almost over (cheers for the help, Chancellor) – and we’ve just dropped hundreds of lines to 80% OFF or more!
“Grab a bargain before we vanish into the budget black hole. #FinalSale #80Off #LastChance #WhenItsGoneItsGone.”
It has struggled to cope with rises in national insurance contributions and higher minimum wage which came into effect last month.
Like many other businesses, Beales faced higher employer NI contributions, which have risen from 13.8% to 15%.
Additionally, the threshold at which these contributions must be paid has been lowered from £9,100 to £5,000.
It came as the national minimum wage was notably increased, rising to £12.21 per hour.
For workers aged 18-20, the minimum wage increased to £10 per hour from £8.60.
These changes to the tax system were confirmed by the Chancellor in the Autumn Budget last October and came into effect on 1 April.
The British Independent Retailers Association (Bira) warned this closure could be the first of many as retailers continue to struggle with mounting costs.
Commercial director Jeff Moody said he was “deeply saddened” to hear about Beales shutting up shop.
Why are retailers closing stores?
RETAILERS have been feeling the squeeze since the pandemic, while shoppers are cutting back on spending due to the soaring cost of living crisis.
High energy costs and a move to shopping online after the pandemic are also taking a toll, and many high street shops have struggled to keep going.
However, additional costs have added further pain to an already struggling sector.
The British Retail Consortium has predicted that the Treasury’s hike to employer NICs from April will cost the retail sector £2.3billion.
At the same time, the minimum wage will rise to £12.21 an hour from April, and the minimum wage for people aged 18-20 will rise to £10 an hour, an increase of £1.40.
The Centre for Retail Research (CRR) has also warned that around 17,350 retail sites are expected to shut down this year.
It comes on the back of a tough 2024 when 13,000 shops closed their doors for good, already a 28% increase on the previous year.
Professor Joshua Bamfield, director of the CRR said: “The results for 2024 show that although the outcomes for store closures overall were not as poor as in either 2020 or 2022, they are still disconcerting, with worse set to come in 2025.”
It comes after almost 170,000 retail workers lost their jobs in 2024.
End-of-year figures compiled by the Centre for Retail Research showed the number of job losses spiked amid the collapse of major chains such as Homebase and Ted Baker.
It said its latest analysis showed that a total of 169,395 retail jobs were lost in the 2024 calendar year to date.
This was up 49,990 – an increase of 41.9% – compared with 2023.
It is the highest annual reading since more than 200,000 jobs were lost in 2020 in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic, which forced retailers to shut their stores during lockdowns.
The centre said 38 major retailers went into administration in 2024, including household names such as Lloyds Pharmacy, Homebase, The Body Shop, Carpetright and Ted Baker.
Around a third of all retail job losses in 2024, 33% or 55,914 in total, resulted from administrations.
Experts have said small high street shops could face a particularly challenging 2025 because of Budget tax and wage changes.
Professor Bamfield has warned of a bleak outlook for 2025, predicting that as many as 202,000 jobs could be lost in the sector.
“By increasing both the costs of running stores and the costs on each consumer’s household it is highly likely that we will see retail job losses eclipse the height of the pandemic in 2020.”
He added: “This is not just the loss of another shop.
“It represents the end of a retail institution that has served communities for nearly one-and-a-half centuries.
“This closure starkly illustrates the devastating impact that recent tax increases are having on our retail sector.”
At its peak, Beales operated 41 stores across the country, selling a range of furniture, cosmetics, fashion products and toys.
The high street chain shut its store in Southport last September just three years after the site reopened.
FAMOUS NAMES GONE FROM THE HIGH STREET
Beales is not the only brand that’s been wiped from the high street in recent years.
Ted Baker, fell into administration last March after years of turmoil.
At the time it had 46 shops in the UK employing around 975 people.
The last stores shut in August after failing to secure a full rescue.
It was relaunched as an online brand in the UK and Europe after a partnership with United Legwear & Apparel Co.
Flooring retailer Carpetright filed for administration in July after efforts to turnaround the struggling firm were derailed by a cyber attack.
The business had 1,800 staff and 273 shops across the country before going bust.
Around 54 stores were snapped up by its arch rival Tapi Carpets & Floors, which also bought its brand name and continues to run the brand online.
LloydsPharmacy, once the UK’s second biggest community pharmacy chain, went into liquidation in late January 2024 with debts of £293million.
The previous year it had closed all of its pharmacies inside Sainsbury’s and divided its 1,000 pharmacy estate into packages of hundreds of stores that it then sold to rivals in smaller deals.
There are no more LloydsPharmacy-branded sites on the high street, but it continues to operate online.
