The family business bucking the High Street trend

A century-old family department store is bucking the trend of dying High Streets by moving one of its branches into a much larger town centre store.

Clothing and sports chain Coes, which started out in 1928, is a mainstay in Ipswich, Felixstowe and Newmarket in Suffolk, and also has stores in King's Lynn, Norfolk, and Maldon, Essex.

Its Felixstowe shop on Hamilton Road has outlasted the seaside town's Marks & Spencer - which was situated opposite until 2019 - and it is now open in a building with twice the floor space on the same street.

"It shows people that the High Street is needed and actually, there's an economy out there and people want to have a High Street," said director Fiona Coe.

"We know that from the really positive impact that this has had.

"So there is the demand — it's just being brave enough to do it."

Asked how it kept its physical stores alive, she credited its "customer service beyond what the normal High Street provides" — bespoke stock and loyal staff, many of whom have worked for the company for decades.

"It's through keeping our customers engaged, it's through building relationships with people so we are the first port of call," she added.

"That takes time. There's no instant fix to that, and we stay true to our brand.

"We know that people look to us for a certain quality and therefore they'll come to us for that."

The move is Coes' third in its 60 years in Felixstowe.

Coes shop manager Richard Ashford said: "It's nice to buck the trend.

"A lot of people shy away from the High Street, but this just proves that we have support locally.

"The buzz in Felixstowe since we announced this has been incredible."

While another independent clothing store on Hamilton Road, Russell Smith, is still operating after some 123 years, several family-run High Street businesses have been lost in Suffolk in recent times.

Barretts of Woodbridge sold its last pieces of furniture earlier this year, citing changing shopping habits and rising bills as it went into administration. Hardware stalwarts Coopers blamed "how the High Street is now" for the demise of its stores in Suffolk and Norfolk in 2025, after 87 years of trading.

Palmers, which originated in Great Yarmouth in 1837 and had a branch in Lowestoft, was a family-run department store until its takeover by Beales in 2018. It went into administration two years later.

Experts warned then that department stores were a dying breed because they were very expensive to run and faced "overwhelming" competition from other stores and online shopping.

So how exactly is Coes able to buck the trend?

Retail expert and consultant Graham Soult, from Canny Insights, said the fact it was "run by real people and is rooted in the community" was a huge draw.

He also said its heritage, the sense of nostalgia it might give customers, and the fact it was as good at marketing itself online as it was on the High street, could be behind its success.

"All those qualities make a business really distinctive and are really important," he said.

"Where you get the sweet spot is where you have a business like Coes that's got the story, the heritage, and that sense of reassurance of having been around a long time.

"I also imagine in a store like that, you go in and there are people who can tell you what they think might suit you and what's on trend, so you get that in-person experience you can't replicate online."

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