Dewhurst pays price of supermarket surge
BRITAIN'S best-known chain of butchers has collapsed after losing its battle against the rampant growth of the big four supermarkets.
Dewhurst, which once boasted 1,400 outlets, has gone into administration, blaming ' deepening losses'.
Administrators immediately closed 60 of the firm's 95 shops. Just over half of the company's 600 workers were made redundant. The rest could lose their jobs if a buyer is not found for the remaining 35 shops.
The company is the latest victim of the supermarkets' grip on the nation's purse strings as shoppers prefer to buy everything from meat to milk and CDs to beer under one roof.
Thirty years ago, butchers controlled nearly 50% of the country's meat sales.
Dewhurst, once owned by the wealthy Vestey family, was the most popular. Its slogan was 'Nobody knows or cares more about meat than Dewhurst'.
In the 1970s supermarkets sold only 25% of all meat, according to the Meat and Livestock Commission.
But shopping habits have changed, and few bother to buy their food from specialist shops.
There are only 7,900 butchers left in Britain, compared with more than 25,000 in the 1970s.
Supermarkets now control more than 75% of the meat market. The butchers' share is less than 10%. The rest is sold by frozen food companies and other outlets.
The recent growth in demand for expensive organic meat - which Dewhurst did not stock - is also thought to have contributed to its collapse.
Dewhurst's owners, Lloyd Maunder, a West Country familyrun firm of butchers which dates back to 1898, said it 'very much regrets' the collapse. It admitted yesterday that there had been 'a significant sales deterioration', although the firm's website claimed Dewhurst was still the 'UK's leading butcher'.
Soaring energy costs, which have increased by about 30% over the last year, and rising rent have also caused serious problems.
A Lloyd Maunder spokesman said: 'Against a background of rent and energy price increases for Dewhurst last autumn, high street trading conditions generally have worsened substantially over the last six months.'
The Competition Commission is to launch an inquiry into claims that the country has become a 'supermarket state'. Figures suggest more than 2,000 small independent stores are being forced to close every year.
Tesco takes £1 in every £8 spent on the high street.
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