Boston department store closing after £30k monthly energy bills

The owner of a Boston department store says a monthly energy bill of £30,000 caused him to make the “difficult decision” to close, but he insists that “nobody will lose their jobs” and will still be employed “under our umbrella”.

The Rebos department store replaced the iconic Oldrids shop some 200 years after it first opened in the town. Oldrids closed on Strait Bargate in July 2020 after 216 years of trading, blaming the closures on the COVID-19 pandemic and reduced footfall.

Rebos first opened on October 4, 2021, before holding a grand opening event on October 15 of the same year, but unfortunately, 15 months later, its closure has been announced.

Owner Serkan Aslan told BBC Radio Lincolnshire: “It’s not a nice feeling to talk about closing down in such a nice town and a fantastic business, but there is reality on the ground where energy prices are so high you don’t have any chance to reduce it, so the priority now is to save the current business as it is and that is the closing down.

“It is probably the most difficult decision I have ever made, but in the end there is nothing we can really change.”

However, he insisted that there “won’t be a staff loss because we will employ them under our umbrella, so nobody will lose their jobs.”

Mr Aslan added that the firm have had “no support from government or energy companies”.

The company had previous fitted energy efficient lights, which “made savings, but on the bills you don’t see it” due to the rising energy prices.

When asked what will happen to the building, he added: “We will protect the building and we are thinking of some plans, but it is not clear yet. We are very carefully considering what we are going to do.”

The Lincolnite tried to contact the owner without response and when we tried to email the company it bounced back.

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