Boxalls Bathroom Centre to close after 60 years due to rising costs and high business rates
The family-run business will close its doors on September 18
A mainstay of the Portsmouth shopping scene has been forced to close its doors after over 60 years in business, due to rising costs and high business rates.
The family-run Boxalls Bathroom Centre was started in the late 1950s by Ken Boxall in a premises on New Road.
“Regular customers still remember us being there,” said current owner Darren Boxall, Ken’s son.
However, Boxalls will be closing its doors on September 18. Darren said the closure is due to a "combination of things”.
“Retail is changing, it's no secret. The business is there but the costs are just outstripping it,” said Darren.
“Especially since the last government budget, business rates are a big struggle for us too,” he said.
“We have been around for a long time and I was hoping we could run things on a bit longer, but we have been struggling for a few years.
“We have been working to pay out bills, not making any profit or gains. You can only go on like that for so long,” he said.
Darren said: “When it has been your whole life a certain amount of sentiment is involved in the closing.”
“My father started in the late 50s in a small shop in New Road, that’s where I was born.”
“Then we moved across the road to a bigger premises in late 70s, into an old Timothy Whites building,” he said. “We were there for a good few years.”
In 1981, the company expanded further and moved to a premises on Copnor Road, where it has operated ever since.
Darren’s parents, Ken and Jasmine were still working at the business well into their 80s, until Jasmine passed away three years ago.
However, in recent years, business started to decline. “From 2007 the was a bit of a down turn in the economy and a lot of high street shops have been feeling that,” said Darren.
“Covid was a bit hard for us. We furloughed all the staff. That probably changed spending habits a lot because people couldn’t go out shopping.”
“We’ve got five guys working for us, we gave them three months' notice so they could sort something out,” said Darren.
“I have always worked around the business and been involved in it.”
“I have been so busy with the paperwork of closing that I haven't had time to think about what's next,” he said.