After 135 years, game’s up for family-owned sports store

ONE of the world’s oldest sports shops, which has been run by the same family for 135 years, is closing due to pressure from online retailers such as Amazon, its owner says.

Knowles Sports did a roaring trade in horse saddles and tennis rackets when it opened in Worcester in 1884. But profits have ebbed away in recent years amid a high street crisis fuelled by the rise of internet shopping.

Rick Knowles, who has run the business since 1992, said he decided to close down the shop his great-grandfather, Alfred, opened when it started losing money last year. He told The Telegraph: “It is very sad having to make the decision we didn’t want to make. It’s the online problem. Footfall [the number of customers visiting shops] is down in Worcester.

“I’m doing the sensible thing rather than letting my heart rule my head. We could keep plodding on right until we go bust, but I don’t want to go down that route.”

Mr Knowles said online retailers who do not pay business rates on properties should be taxed more to level the playing field for competitors on the high street.

The original shop now sells luggage and leatherware and has been renamed Knowles Travelgoods. Knowles Sports moved into premises on the other side of Broad Street when the family busi- ness expanded in 1972.

Mr Knowles said he expected to close both shops in January.

It comes as the world’s oldest post office, which opened in the Scottish town of Sanquhar in 1712, faces the prospect of being closed after its owners put it up for sale for £275,000.

In September, a study by Pricewaterhousecoopers and high street analysts the Local Data Company found that the number of shops, pubs and restaurants lying empty is rising at the fastest rate in nearly a decade.