Beales is undergoing a quiet transformation under Tony Brown, but bringing the Anglia Co-op’s stores up to date won’t be simple

Regular readers of this blog will know I love old-fashioned department stores, the ones with annexes, floors on different levels, formica-furnished cafes and huge areas of space with no stock in them. They’re a dying breed, as some are being brought bang up to date - like a lot of the House of Fraser regional stores and my local department store, Morleys of Brixton - while others are sadly closing, like Lewis’s of Liverpool and several of its fellow stores in the Vergo group which went bust last year.

The reality is that those which have failed to move with the times are going to fail. I remember going into the Co-op store in Ipswich a couple of years ago and it was like walking back into 1978. That store ended up in the Vergo group and sadly I think is no more.

Beales has capitalised on the demise of weaker rivals over the past few years, picking up the better Vergo stores in places like Hexham and Rochdale, and this week more than doubled its store count by buying most of the Anglia Co-op’s department stores, which trade under the Westgate brand.

I’m not especially familiar with these stores, but I don’t think anyone is denying they’ve seen better days. Some of the towns they’re in are pretty small, and it’s going to take some work to give them back their point of uniqueness and attract younger customers who have pretty much passed them by.

But if anyone can do that Beales can. Under former BHS man Tony Brown this perennial minnow of the quoted retail sector has become an opportunist investor in struggling regional stores, and is succeeding in narrowing its losses as it benefits from greater economies of scale and buying power.

The market is very tough, but the concession model provides a new lease of life for provincial department stores, driving footfall of younger shoppers who might not otherwise have stepped foot in there. And with petrol prices at astronomical levels, customers, especially in remote towns, will be more inclined to shop locally.

That’s not to say it won’t be a long hard slog to turn the Westgate stores round, but its worth a punt and the Anglia Co-op is a willing vendor which is supporting Beales’ plans financially. Good luck to them.