Jarrolds in Cromer will not close, says boss

Staff at a long-established department store outlet have been assured that another shop closure is not being planned.

Jarrolds is closing the book department of its four-floor store in Norwich, citing the struggle to compete with national and online rivals.

Jarrolds' Cromer store primarily sells books, however Tim Shattock, the firm's managing director for trading, insisted the coastal shop was "not at risk".

It follows the closure of its shop in Wymondham last September - and a move to cut the hours of around 70 staff earlier this year.

Speaking to BBC Radio Norfolk, Mr Shattock said: "I think it comes down to how you work with scale.

"We obviously have a large store with large operating costs in Norwich and we also have a multi-department offer.

"If you're dedicated to books and you're operating either as a large bookseller - as a Waterstones where you've got scale to combat some of the price and availability - or if that's actually the main area of focus, like some of the excellent independent book shops.

"That's where Cromer exists for us. It leads with books and has a very good book business. It has a very good customer base, with not huge amounts of competition, like Norwich."

The book department of the Norwich store is set to close at the end of August after a sale of existing stock.

Mr Shattock did not confirm if any staff would be made redundant but said: "With any business change we have to prioritise any colleagues affected and I know the team at Jarrolds are working with them to manage that."

Jarrolds appears to be in a healthy position financially, according to its most recent annual accounts to the end of January 2024.

Turnover dipped very slightly to £31.8m but a £6m profit represented a 19.1% gross profit margin. The average number of employees also fell very slightly to 398 from 419 the previous year.

Despite the firm's long history as a publisher and a book seller, Mr Shattock admitted the department had faced challenges since the rise of online retailers at the turn of the millennium.

"We're very proud of our history as a bookseller in Norwich and books as a whole in the company, we're also very thankful to our loyal customers who have been on the journey with us," he said.

"So I understand that this decision is a difficult one and tricky for some customers to understand.

"In the department store we operate in a number of different categories and whilst we're seeing some really good growth in some and some really strong demand, this [books] has been a challenging market for us for a number of years.

"We've managed to nurture the department over the last two decades and managed that decline, it's got to the point where we need to think about the future and make a difficult decision on our portfolio."

Mr Shattock said growth could be found in innovative areas, such as the food hall and beauty retreat rooms.

"We're seeing that innovation in other categories that we're finding very difficult to replicate in books," he said.

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