North East furniture firm Barker and Stonehouse has announced it will close its Newcastle city centre store as it moves towards the opening date for a new flagship base.
The Stockton home furnishings company says the Newcastle shop, where it has traded since 1998, will close in March following a number of changes in the way it trades on Tyneside. The firm is investing in a new store at the Metrocentre Retail Park in Gateshead, which is set to open on April 7, this year.
Managing director James Barker says there are no plans to open elsewhere in the city centre because of the firm’s sizeable investment in Gateshead, coupled with the success of its partnership with nearby department store Fenwick. The firm launched its partnership with fellow North East retail stalwart Fenwick last summer, when it opened new in-store concepts within the company’s stores in Newcastle and Kingston.
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Mr Barker said: “The Fenwick partnership is going well. I think it will get better when we make the move - we are going to close the Newcastle store in March. At the moment the new Gateshead store will open on Good Friday. Our present Gateshead store will be turned into an outlet, we will retain our concession in Fenwick in the city centre, and then we will be closing the Newcastle store in March.
“We’re spending a huge amount of money on the new store in Gateshead, and between Fenwick and the new store in Gateshead that will be everything we need. It’s bigger than the Newcastle store. It has lots of free parking, it’s accessible – furniture shopping in the city centre is not an easy thing now.”
Against a background of historically low consumer confidence and 30-year-high inflation, Mr Barker said the retailer is continuing to invest in the new state-of the-art flagship store, which has been designed with sustainability in mind, with the use of responsibly-sourced timber frames rather than steel and a full roof of solar tiles.
Innovative extras including a green roof to protect and promote biodiversity. A Chadwick & Co restaurant will also open in the store.
The opening date for the new shop was revealed as the firm, which has 11 stores across the UK as well as a website, published its latest accounts, covering the year ended March 27 2022, showing a 28% jump in turnover, from £76.1m to £97.6m. Operating profit also increased from £5.25m to £8.23m and overall profit for the full year was £6.38m, up from £3.99m. Staffing levels also rose in the period, with the firm employing an average of 430 people, up from 398 in 2021.
Mr Barker said the growth came thanks to demand for home furnishings following the pandemic. He said the end of national lockdowns delivered a boost but that the firm was now experiencing pricing pressures. He said: “It has been very up and down. We’ve been dealing with supply chain problems and now we’re dealing with the cost of gas and electricity. At the moment we’re dealing with change all the time, and you just have to be able to adapt.”
Barker and Stonehouse recently achieved Carbon Neutral Plus status – meaning it is now reducing its emissions beyond its carbon footprint. The company opened its first store in Stockton in 1946 when the firm was launched by Charles Barker and Alex Stonehouse amid aims to serve up a manufacturing boost to post-war Britain. The company has its Teesside flagship store in Stockton’s Teesside Retail Park shop.
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