Newmarket newsagent set to shut after racing’s halt sees sales slide

A popular long standing Newmarket newsagent is set to close after coronavirus restrictions put a sledgehammer through the business.

The News Box, in High Street, will shut its doors for the final time today after a combination of rent increases, customers being put off because of new parking fines, and a drop in sales since racing stopped.

Nicholas Nicholson who was in charge of the day to day running of the shop said: “We rely on the racing industry and people coming into the town to go racing.

“Because of Covid we have not had a proper racing season this year and people have not been able to come to the town to go racing meaning our revenue has more than halved.”

Business owner Mark Nicholson, Nicholas’ dad, said that deciding to close the store, which he has owned for three years, was a difficult and sad decision but that it had been haemorrhaging money.

Mark said they had to shut during the government ordered lockdown, and since they had re-opened their takings had plummeted. “We got to a point where there was no recovery,” he said: “It’s a sign of the times.”

There has been a newsagent at the clock tower for more than 40 years and over the decades the shop had been particularly popular with jockeys, trainers and racing workers.

In years gone by some of the town’s best known racing faces would stop off early to pick up a copy of the Sporting Life and in the years that followed the Racing Post.

The News Box is the latest High Street business to close as the coronavirus crisis continues to take its toll with M&Co shutting up shop earlier this year. Last year Bonmarché also closed.

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