{"id":73811,"date":"2025-05-04T12:15:11","date_gmt":"2025-05-04T12:15:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/73811\/"},"modified":"2025-05-04T12:15:11","modified_gmt":"2025-05-04T12:15:11","slug":"famous-uk-store-closes-last-branch-after-operating-23-shops-across-england","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/73811\/","title":{"rendered":"Famous UK store closes last branch after operating 23 shops across England"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Beales fell into administration in January 2020 and closed 22 of its 23 UK branches in the same year<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/0_beales.jpg\" alt=\"Beales fell into administration in January 2020 and closed 22 of its 23 UK branches in the same year, \" loading=\"eager\"  \/>Beales fell into administration in January 2020 and closed 22 of its 23 UK branches in the same year, <\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \">A famous UK department store has closed its last shop. Beales fell into administration in January 2020 and closed 22 of its 23 UK branches in the same year, with the final branch now closing this week, with customers warned.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \">Chief executive Tony Brown confirmed that the branch, in Poole\u2019s Dolphin Shopping Centre, would close at the end of May. He has also launched a tongue-in-cheek \u201cRachel Reeves closing-down sale\u201d in a swipe at the <a class=\"TextLink_text-link__dBSS0 TextLink_enabled__dJF3l\" href=\"https:\/\/www.birminghammail.co.uk\/all-about\/labour-party\" target=\"\" aria-label=\"\" tabindex=\"0\" rel=\"noopener\">Labour Party<\/a> Chancellor.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \">The retailer added: \u201cThanks for the help, Chancellor.\u201d He said the tax changes had made the business \u201cunviable\u201d and warned that if the Chancellor continues her \u201cfiscal strategy&#8221;, many more firms would be forced to close \u2013 leaving British high streets packed with &#8220;cafes and vape shops&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \"><a class=\"TextLink_text-link__dBSS0 TextLink_enabled__dJF3l\" href=\"https:\/\/www.birminghammail.co.uk\/news\/cost-of-living\/hmrc-issues-warning-wind-down-31528661\" target=\"\" aria-label=\"\" tabindex=\"0\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong class=\"Strong_strong__e2x35\">READ MORE HMRC issues warning to &#8216;wind down&#8217; use of scheme as it begins &#8216;crackdown&#8217;<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \">&#8220;Ever since the punitive business taxes heaped on by the Chancellor, the two NI increases and the National Minimum wage increase and the reduction of the rates relief to 40% adding significantly to our costs, these punitive taxes have had the effect that the business has become unviable,&#8221; he said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \">\u201cThis, coupled with the risks and uncertainty of further tax increases in the coming years, have left us no other option.&#8221; Mr Brown also accused Labour of being \u201cmanipulative\u201d and carefully wording its manifesto to enable it to increase taxes on working people.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \">\u201cI consider myself a working person, people who run businesses are working people,\u201d he said. Commercial director Jeff Moody said: \u201cWe are deeply saddened to learn of Beales\u2019 closure.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \">\u201cThis is not just the loss of another shop \u2013 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.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \">Founded in 1881, Beales operated 41 department stores in market towns across the UK at its peak, selling a range of furniture, fashion, toys and cosmetics.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \">In January 2020, Beales tumbled into administration.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Beales fell into administration in January 2020 and closed 22 of its 23 UK branches in the same&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":73812,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5008],"tags":[748,393,4884,16,15,961],"class_list":{"0":"post-73811","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-england","8":"tag-britain","9":"tag-england","10":"tag-great-britain","11":"tag-uk","12":"tag-united-kingdom","13":"tag-your-money"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114449516134301693","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73811","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=73811"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73811\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/73812"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=73811"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=73811"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=73811"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}