Vintage fashion firm is 'driven out of business'

DROP IN CONSUMER SPEND AND LACK OF TOURISTS BLAMED

- WILLIAM TELFORD

A VINTAGE fashion company which traded in Plymouth and Cornwall has been driven out of business by a sharp drop in consumer spending and a lack of tourists visiting this summer.

Vintage Superstore Group Ltd went bust leaving debts of about £250,000 – much of which is owed to owner Ollie Hawkins. The company, now in liquidation, traded from Launceston and the Rotunda building at Charles Cross, in Plymouth.

But despite the stores at one time attracting 70,000 people a year, a tough 2024 saw the company go under. Mr Hawkins has now told The Herald how the business “faced significant challenges in balancing increased operational costs and a substantial drop in consumer spending”.

He said: “The rising costs of running our business, combined with the financial strains many of our customers have been experiencing, created an environment where it became pretty much impossible to maintain a financially secure retail business with that level of overheads.

“We endured a rather tough winter in 2023 and had felt the cash-flow pressure from this point onwards leading up to our closure.

“Our main goal was to see it all through until the summer of 2024, to get us back on track, but unfortunately, the summer tourism trade - our main source of profitable income – plummeted in 2024.