High rent prices and business rates led to closure of Chesterfield business, owner says

NJUK Hair and Beauty Chesterfield Ltd - which operated NJUK Hair and Beauty on West Bars - officially appointed liquidators last week.

The news does not affect the NJUK Hair and Beauty salon on Mill Street, Clowne, which remains open.

Nicola Clifford, owner of NJUK Hair and Beauty, said: "It's with great sadness that we had to close the Chesterfield salon.

"Unfortunately, due to high rent and rates charges, it wasn't possible to make it a profitable venture so it was decided to close the business down.

"Due to the lease a formal insolvency was the only solution for us.

"The Chesterfield salon was a stand-alone business supported by NJUK Clowne.

"The Clowne salon is not affected and remains open."

She added: "All employees of the Chesterfield salon have found employment at the Clowne salon and all our Chesterfield clients are being looked after as best as we can."

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92.1 per cent of Chesterfield town centre shops are occupied

Earlier this month, long-running Chesterfield business Krazy Price revealed it had closed its shop on Knifesmithgate and would operate as an online-only venture.

Sophie Vernon, who works for Krazy Price, said: "Due to increasing rents, high rates, long-term contracts and ever-increasing parking charges in the town centre, we felt no choice but to close the shop and continue our venture online.

"The homeless problem and legal high issues, I believe, have affected our trade massively over the past year as people were unsure to use the street we were on as we had many people laid all over the floor, begging for money, swearing and loitering.

"I feel the town has lost its atmosphere over the last few years.

"There's no excitement, no buzz, especially with the market - 'what market?' I hear many customers say.

"However, we have had a large amount of regular customers saddened by our departure.

"We didn't want to close our shop - but in order for our business to carry on, online will be the only way to keep costs lower.

"We hope the residents of Chesterfield will continue to use us - we will have many online promotions and offer codes for first orders in June."

Councillor Tricia Gilby, leader of Chesterfield Borough Council, said: "We are aware that town centre retailers have issues but the number of occupied shops in Chesterfield remains high with 92.1 per cent of town centre shops occupied, which is more than three per cent above the national average."

The council insisted that it was not responsible for rents and business rates.