Friary Shoes hosts Celebration of Lichfield Independent High Street Businesses

28th November 2022

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Friary Shoes, now situated on Baker’s Lane in Lichfield is one of the longest established retailers in the city, having opened its first Lichfield store in 1904, over 118 years ago.

The Lichfield business owners who attended the evening were joined by members of the council and other local dignitaries including the President of Lichfield Chamber of Trade and Commerce, the Mayor and the Sheriff of Lichfield.

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Local historian Jonathan Oates opened the evening with a short talk celebrating those Lichfield independent retailers, like Friary Shoes, who have been trading in the city for many years.

Director, Adam Lumb, the 4^th generation of his family to run Friary Shoes explained: “We wanted to put on this event to help highlight the importance of independent and family businesses on the high street, as we’re concerned about the future of retail in Lichfield. Retail is hard at the moment, everywhere across the UK. It’s been hard for a number of years now. The reduction of people visiting towns and cities due to lifestyle changes, online shopping and out-of-town retail parks results in reduced footfall. As a result, the hustle and bustle of the high street is no longer the same, and empty retail units are unfortunately commonplace in most in town and city centres these days. We don’t want a world without high street shops. All the independent business owners we know take immense pride in offering excellent service, as they care about the town or city they’ve based their business in and use their passion and experience to help the local community. That’s why we need to work together, to find a way for independent family-run businesses to survive and thrive.”

Fellow director of Friary Shoes, Tracey Lumb said: “The last few years have seen retailers trying to survive Brexit, then Covid – and now there’s the recession! We’ve hosted this event because we believe independent shop owners need to work together, find ways to collaborate and build a strong community in this area. We need to help each other through the tough times, as it’s not just the business owners who are affected by the downturn, but all the staff and their families too. When you run a family business, your employees are more than just employees, they feel like a part of your extended family. Some of our staff have worked with us at Friary Shoes for 20 years or more! We’re extremely grateful to everyone who came along on the night, to show their support and join in the conversations. It was lovely to meet some old and new faces to the Lichfield retail scene.”

Ruth Redgate, President of the Lichfield Chamber of Trade and Commerce said: “I’d like to thank Adam and Tracey for the efforts they are making to champion local independent retailers, and we look forward to more discussions in the future.”

Councillor Iain Eadie, Lichfield District Council’s Deputy Leader and Cabinet Member for Economic Growth and Development said: “It was a pleasure to be invited to the celebration of independent businesses event at Friary Shoes.

“I am really grateful to Adam and Tracey for making this happen and to all the other independent retailers who attended and gave feedback on what would help their businesses, in these continued challenging trading conditions. I am really pleased that we were able to pick up the ideas of promoting our local independent retailers through social media whilst also looking at a Christmas parking offer.

Check out the Lichfield Christmas 🎄 parking🚗 offer right here.

“Our independent retailers are fantastic and in the run up to Christmas, please can I encourage everyone to try and shop in their stores. We mustn't lose them and supporting them through local shopping will help them greatly.”

Well said Mr Eadie, it was a pleasure to have attended this event and to see and hear the passion local #Lichfield businesses have for their long term plans in the City.

This is only possible with your support please #BuyLocal this Christmas the future of Lichfield depends on it!