Berwick bucks the national recession trend
Mar 27 2009 by David Old, The Journal
IT may be the poorest town in Britain, but Berwick is beating the crunch. While shops and bars across the UK are going under on a daily basis, firms in the Northumberland town are going from strength to strength.
Takings are up by up to 400% as the recession-busting border town bucks the trend.
The average wage there is just £14,214, £12,000 below the national figure, according to the Office for National Statistics.
But while big retailers such as Woolworths and Shoe Zone have been hit, the small independent shops have been enjoying record sales.
Norman Gauld, who runs Wilson Cycles in Bridge Street, has seen his takings jump 30% compared with 2008.
He said: “People are buying bikes to go to work on as they try to save money on petrol and transport. I also see an awful lot of tourists coming through in the summer time. A couple of my customers live in London and actually come up on the train to have their bicycle serviced. They all say they wish they had a bike shop like this where they lived.
“It’s like ripples on a pond, Berwick is so far out of the way that anything that happens down south takes time to filter through. And by the time it reaches us it is not as big.”
And there is more good news as it has emerged the Woolworths building has been snapped up by Home Bargains, and Mountain Warehouse is moving in to another vacant store.
Berwick Borough Council’s town centre manager, Neil Brown, said: “We seem to be doing quite well, particularly individual retailers. There seems to be a renewed confidence in the town and retailers are really concentrating on customer service and word of mouth to help other businesses.
“Vacancy rates are coming down and are well below the national average.”
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