Founder of Brooks Cycles in Fleetwood so sad to have to close up the shop after decades in trade

Brooks Cycles and Leisure had operated from various shops units on North Albert Street over a period of around 30 years, including 20 years at its final base at number 4.

Before that there had been a hardware, bike hire and sales business at other sites in Carleton and Thornton with wife Jennifer.

But company director Arthur Brooks, 76, says changing patterns of trade in recent years made it harder for the business to make a profit.

At the beginning of July he agreed to close the shop after his accountant told him the business, as it was, was no longer tenable.

For the past decade the shop was run by Arthur’s son James, 50, after the pair had run it together for a previous decade.

Arthur, a well known figure in Fleetwood and a long-standing Rotarian, said: “This business has been my life and my family’s life for years so I was gutted when I had to finally close.

"Things have been tough in recent years – Covid, Brexit and online trade have really made things difficult.

"Costs have risen and people want things cheaper, so they’d come into the shop, look at what they liked – and then order it off the internet instead of buying it from us!

"Some people even came in with packs they’d bought online and expected us to put them together for them for next to nothing.

"One person said we were a ‘public service’ – I told him we weren’t – we were a actually a business!”

But he added: “We’ve had brilliant customers over the years and I’ll miss that.”

Over the years Arthur saw many new crazes come in – first it was mountain bikes, then BMX models and more recently electric bikes.

For many years he was a sole Raleigh dealer but later sold many other makes too.

Despite the sadness of the shop closing he is proud that his business career – starting when he took over his dad’s hardware business – lasted 55 years.

He said: “Not many businesses last that long so it’s something to be proud of.”