One of Cumbria’s oldest furniture shops is refreshing its brand by putting part of its shop up for lease.
John Young Furnishings on Main Street, Keswick, is changing its business model and has put the front building, in a prime retail location in the town, up for rent with Mere Commercial.
Owner John Young said: “I think we do most of our business in the back shop.
“Primarily we do antiques in the front and we’re not going to be doing as many antiques — so we don’t really need it.
“I’m not selling it. It’s up for lease and someone else can probably make better use of it.
“It’s an expensive shop to run. The rates are over £30,000 a year, then there’s staffing.
“I think we can refresh the brand and operate in the back building quite nicely. We make most of our sales in here. It’s not a negative.
“We need to concentrate on our online presence; market the fact that we are here online, not sell online.
“There are businesses who can make a lot better use of that Main Street shop and frontage than me.
“As a furniture shop we don’t need it. We will miss the space, but we can condense what we’ve got.
He added: “The daft thing is in July and August when the street is packed with people we are not actually that busy. We do more business at back end. We are not reliant on volume.”
John Young’s first opened in the summer of 1890.
The business expanded in 2003 when the rear warehouse was made into another showroom.
It is home to a furnishings gallery.
The current owner is the fourth generation of the same family to own and run the shop. He comes from a long line of antique dealers and clock makers.
Mr Young said he was also looking forward to having some time off.
