Six jobs lost as city centre store closes

Staff who turned up for work at the Bryars cloth warehouse in the Wool Exchange yesterday were told the company had gone into liquidation and they no longer had jobs.

For the last fortnight customers have been playing a guessing game about the future of the store which was set up in 1929 and moved to its present location in 1966.

Posters with 'closing down sale' and 'for refurbishment' appeared two weeks ago in the shop windows which looks on to Bank Street and Hustlergate.

Manager Fraser Sill denied the shop was closing down when quizzed by a Telegraph & Argus reporter last week.

But Mr Sill was one of six workers who lost their jobs when the company's board of directors declared the company had ceased trading yesterday.

He said: "We had a closing down sale to see what revenue we could raise before the board of directors met at the end of trading last Saturday.

"We didn't know until that meeting if we were closing down or not, that's why I put the posters up.''

He added: "We are all very shocked it has come to this but the harsh reality of the intolerable overheads, that is rent and rates, have taken their toll''.

Mr Sill said a lack of new customers at the store, taken over by its present owners three-and-a-half-years ago, had also contributed towards its closure.

Tim Smith, head of retail development at GVA Grimley which manages the Wool Exchange, said the rent was justified and reflected the going-rate in the city centre.

He said: "My clients have always got great sympathy for people who run into financial difficulties. We are in discussion with a number of retailers interested in the Bryars' unit and the new tenant will probably be a high street retailer, although we have taken inquiries from smaller, independent retailers locally."

Jeff Frankel, chairman of the Bradford Retail Action Group, said: "If the people of this city want these type of stores to survive they must shop with their feet and come into the centre."