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Durham Cathedral is to take over the running of its shop after the store, run by brothers Mark and Phil Brewer, closed its doors on 24th January after suffering financial problems.
The bookshop had previously been under the management of SPCK from 1954–2006, but was then taken over by St Stephen the Great Charitable Trust and was run by Mark and Phil Brewer.
Phil Brewer, manager of the shop, emailed staff to say that the financial situation was "difficult" on 19th January. Earlier on in the month it was announced that the shop would move to a new location later in the year. Additionally the stock was moved out of the shop last week after the building suffered leaks from snow melt.
Philip Davies, chapter clerk at the cathedral, said that the cathedral had planned to take over the running of the shop in May and it issued a notice to the Brewer brothers. Davies said that business had been very bad and that the previous owners could no longer keep trading, but the cathedral would open the shop as soon as it could. He added: "We don't quite know when [the shop will re-open] as we didn't know that this was going to happen. The staff will be employed, but it may be a couple of months until we get up and running."
Davies said the shop will stock similar products as before, with theological and Christian books and tourist items. Davies added: "Ultimately it is the intention to move the shop in a view to trying to develop the visitor attractions."
Christian bookshops have had a tough couple of months with Wesley Owen's parent IBS-STL going into administration in December.