Spirit is latest victim of Marlborough’s sky-high rents

Fashion retailer Spirit may be the latest victim of Marlborough’s sky-high shop rents, said to be among the highest in the UK outside of London.

But despite To Let signs going up outside her three-storey High Street shop, proprietor Rose Webster has vowed to do all she can to stay in Marlborough, where she has built a loyal customer base of funky thirty to fifty-somethings.

This week, Rose – why opened Spirt at 112 High Street seven years ago – said rents in the town were “astronomical”.

“I’m paying £31,500 a year to be here,” she said. “My shop in Bradford on Avon has the same floor space, and the turnover is about the same, but I’m only paying £12,000 a year.

“I have a friend in Bath who has a lovely boutique, and she’s paying less rent than I am.

“People look at Marlborough, they see the grand High Street and the College and they assume there are millions of shoppers.

“There aren’t; and the economic downturn since 2008 has had a serious knock on profits.”

Spirit, which employs five part-time members of staff, replaced the clothes shop Pavilion in 2005. Rose’s builder husband, Roy, fitted oak floors and an oak staircase.”We’ve created a lovely, inviting retail space here,” said Rose.

In an attempt to manage the spiralling costs of running a boutique, Rose is now looking for a complimentary business to join her at 112 High Street.

“It could be another fashion retailer or something else, like a beautician,” she said. “I’m prepared to share ground floor window display space, and the first floor room – which I’d like to sub-let – has three big sash windows.”

Rose, who owns Spirit outlets in Devizes and Bradford on Avon and, until recently Frome said she had looked at other retail premises in Marlborough, but had found nothing suitable.

“If we don’t find another business to share our lovely space, we will have no option other than to relocate,” she said. 

• High business rents has been a concern for some time, and is even highlighted in the Marlborough Area Plan 2012 to 2017, which reads: “The high cost of business premises and the need to support new and small enterprises in the face of business closures and job loses is… a cause for concern.”