A HISTORIC British clothing store once beloved by the Royal Family and known for supplying Europe’s top fashion houses has shut down for good—leaving 28 people out of work.
Otterburn Mills, based in Otterburn, Northumberland, with a second store in Rothbury, has gone into liquidation following a series of financial blows.
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The 18th-century mill-turned-retail business struggled to recover after the Covid pandemic, with shop visitor numbers failing to return to pre-2020 levels.
The business was further hit by the sudden loss of a key supplier, soaring operating costs, and a shift in consumer shopping habits away from the high street.
The company, which famously made a pram rug for Queen Elizabeth II in 1926, had recently been put up for sale.
However, no buyer could be found, and business recovery experts FRP were brought in to oversee the winding down of operations.
FRP confirmed that the company has ceased trading and 28 employees have been made redundant.
Those affected are now being supported with access to the Redundancy Payments Service.
Antonya Allison, joint liquidator and director at FRP, said: “Otterburn Mills was a well-known and respected local business that had built a loyal customer base over many years.
Unfortunately, the retailer was faced with an array of challenging headwinds that many high-street brands will recognise and, despite our best efforts to identify it has not been possible to find a viable way forward for the business.
Our focus is now on supporting those affected and working to ensure the best possible outcome for creditors through the liquidation process.”
The business also had debts owed to HMRC.
FRP added that it is “working with all stakeholders to ensure an orderly wind down of the business and to maximise returns for creditors.”
Otterburn Mills rose to prominence under William Waddell, the son of a Borders wool manufacturer, and built a reputation for its tweeds and woven fabrics.
These high-quality materials were once used by major European fashion houses including Dior and Balmain.
The site was transformed into a retail clothing store in the 1990s by Euan Pringle, who preserved much of the original mill machinery as part of the shop’s heritage display.
The closure adds to a growing list of British retail losses in recent months.
The Original Factory Shop has begun closing down sales at several branches across Worcestershire, Dorset, Durham and other parts of the UK, as part of its wider restructuring.
Poundland, recently sold to a US-based firm for just £1, is facing the potential closure of around 100 of its 800 UK shops, with job losses expected.
House of Fraser is also shutting down its Worcester city centre store, where a 20 per cent off closing down sale has already begun ahead of its final trading day in September.
Meanwhile, fashion chain River Island is drawing up a radical rescue plan to avoid collapse, which includes shutting some stores.
Its Banbury branch is set to close at the end of June, and more may follow as the retailer attempts to recover from a £33.2 million loss last year.
Industry experts say these closures reflect broader trends, including rising energy bills, business rates, and staffing costs.
Many shoppers have moved online or prefer to visit large retail parks over traditional town centres.
The Centre for Retail Research has warned that more than 17,000 UK stores could shut their doors in 2025, putting up to 202,000 retail jobs at risk.
The loss of Otterburn Mills, a once-thriving symbol of British textile heritage, underlines the deepening crisis for both independent shops and national retail chains across the UK.
Without meaningful support or change in consumer habits, more historic names could be lost from the high street for good.
RETAIL PAIN IN 2025
The British Retail Consortium predicted that the Treasury’s hike to employer NICs would cost the retail sector £2.3billion.
Research published by the British Chambers of Commerce earlier this year shows that more than half of companies planned to raise prices by early April.
Separately, 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.”
Professor Bamfield has also 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.”
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