A FAIR trade retailer in Stratford-upon-Avon officially closed on Tuesday—another blow to the town centre which already has numerous empty shops.

Over the next couple of weeks, the area manager of Shared Earth, in Wood Street, predicts the shop will open “sporadically” until the next tenant takes over the premises.

Linne Dawson, area manager of the company that sells fair trade, eco-friendly and recycled products told the Herald yesterday (Wednesday): “Two years ago, in the summer time, we were excitedly planning opening the shop. The town was absolutely alive with people and there are no prizes for saying what it looks like at the moment. It’s really really sad.” Ms Dawson continued: “There are a few things that have come together in unfortunate timing. There is the parking in the centre, the shopping centre out of town [Maybird] and the theatre is still not open. It’s a self-fulfilling prophecy that when people see ‘closed’ shop signs, that people do not want to go to look in the town.

She said that a combination of high rents, service charges, business rates and “all the expenses that go together for running a successful shop” had affected the branch.

Ms Dawson said the rest of the Shared Earth shops were fine, as a shop will open in Covent Garden, in London, in the next few weeks. She said: “It’s not a company issue, it’s a location issue. We were so convinced that the Stratford shop would be like the York shop—as Stratford is in a similar vein. I think it’s really sad, as we felt we added to the town, and we are not sure what else we could have done. The business rates and service charges are high.”

Ms Dawson said Shared Earth had asked for help. It was offered another premises in Bards Walk for less rent, but looking at the footfall in the town and the other expenses, she said the profits would have still been chipped away. Ms Dawson continued: “We cannot blame the recession on this. It’s not two years since we opened the door and we certainly didn’t expect to leave so soon.”

She said people in Stratford had made the company feel very welcome to the town: “We will be opening sporadically as we can spare the staff—the next nearest shop is Birmingham. We are going to keep it open until the new owner is ready.”

She added: “Maybe everyone has to go before they will listen and then it will be too late. There will just be larger companies soon, who are big enough to ride the recession—but that doesn’t help the small independents.”

At the end of July, Katie Gilbert, owner of Romeo and Juliet’s, closed her adult boutique in Rother Street after just a year citing high business rates—more than six times as much than for her similar sized shop in Evesham.

The amount of business rates a shop pays depends on its rateable value which is based on the value of the property. Rates are higher in Stratford than Evesham because commercial property is worth more. Although the district council collects business rates, they are set nationally and paid into a central fund and redistributed to local authorities across the country.

Posted at 9.30pm on 2nd September