15 Mar Nine-year-old Harry from Dovercourt helps open town’s new charity shop
A new East Anglia’s Children’s Hospices (EACH) shop in Dovercourt was declared officially open this morning.
There was added significance to the occasion as EACH also revealed it was the second-fastest growing retailer in a national survey of 71 charities last year.
The latest edition of the annual Charity Shops Survey “saw a slight fall in the number of charity shops – the first such drop since 2003”, with charities such as Oxfam GB and Age UK reporting a series of closures. EACH bucked that trend, though, adding seven shops to its retail portfolio in 2017/18.
That rise was reflected in its income growth, with EACH recording the second-largest increase of 21.8%. While those stats might go hand in hand, EACH has also taken care to make sure its shops show a good profit margin and, with 33.2% of its income going straight towards care and support for children, young people and families, it ranks firmly in the top 15 for profitability.
Remaining ambitious, EACH opened its first shop of 2019 today. The ribbon was cut by Laura Rolph-Wills, who was helped by her nine-year-old son, Harry. The family, from Dovercourt, have been receiving care and support from EACH since 2014. Customers then streamed through the door, spending £950 in the first two hours of trading.
EACH’s largest single floor outlet features the usual range of ladies’ clothing, books, bric-a-brac and a men’s department, as well as a dedicated children’s zone, with a reading tepee, colouring tables and blackboards.
