Peterborough clothing boss urges support for small retailers through ‘heart-breaking’ crisis

The appeal comes from Andrew Killingsworth, the founder of Yours Clothing, in Orton Southgate, Peterborough, who says the plight faced by the small retailers during the Covid enforced closures is ‘heart-breaking’.

And he is hoping people will do all they can to help smaller business through the new national lockdown and the Covid pandemic.

He said: “It’s been a very difficult trading environment for many retailers since Covid-19 took hold from March.

“Many retailers, particularly non-essential retailers with physical stores have inevitably lost sales from last March, April, May and June and again from November, this has been further magnified by the same trading restrictions in January, February and potentially March.

He said: “I particularly feel for the smaller independent retailers around the country, particularly those in the Greater Peterborough area who have been hit really hard, losing their own time and money during the pandemic.

“It’s heart-breaking and I hope as many as possible come out of the other side.

“I would ask everyone to do all they can to support these smaller independents in these testing times as they really are the heartbeat of the high street and need us now more than ever.”

Eight months ago, during the first lockdown, Mr Killingsworth revealed the enforced closure of so-called non-essential retailers had cost his business £22 milliion in lost sales.

Since then Yours Clothing’s parent company AK Retail Holdings, which employs about 1,000 at its head office in Bakewell Road, has invested in new technology and also bought the women’s fashion retailer Long Tall Sally.

Mr Killingsworth said: “The positive for AK Retail Holdings is we do have robust ecommerce platforms throughout and investment in these was implemented pre-Covid.

“This has enabled us to cope much better with the challenging trading environment we currently find ourselves in.

He added: “Unfortunately those that don’t seem to have fully embraced technology as we have may find this is the final blow for them, large business are falling victim of that and to see companies like the Arcadia Group, Peacocks and Bonmarche is a warning to us all.

“Personally we will continue to support all the measures that keep our customers and staff safe until we enter into the new normal, we’ve had a challenging year to say the least but we have worked hard to put ourselves in a solid position to be able to once again thrive when the new normal returns, whenever that is.

“The main message from me is a huge thank you to all the dedicated staff and customers who have worked very hard and have supported us.”

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