A JEWELLERY shop that has been in the town for around 25 years has been forced to close its doors due to the modern-day pressures on town centre businesses.

Midas Jewellery in Crompton Place Shopping Centre has closed for good and the proprietor Stephen Wilding revealed it had been struggling in recent months.

The reasons he gave for the business' demise included the impact of online shopping, which he claims had taken 10 per cent of his business.

Mr Wilding said: "We have closed and to be honest many of the shops around the centre are struggling with the business rates.

"Shops are closing down, Prestons is closing down. I started the business off in Crompton Place in the town centre, so I have been here since the beginning, but it has just got too much recently.

"I think there is a feeling of great frustration. The main thing retailers are up against is online shopping.

"The internet is taking around 10 per cent of our business. We are not the first to close and we will not be the last. There will be many more in the future.

"I have been in the business all my life since I was 21 and I have never known a time where this many jewellers closed. They have always seem to have been able to survive."

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As well as struggling to pay the business rates, Mr Wilding said he had found it hard to pay the lease and said he could not commit to a renewal.

He said: "I just think it is really sad for the retail sector and it is sad for Bolton.

"But I would like to say that we have had lots of people coming up to us and saying how sorry they were that we were closing.

"I think we have been very well liked in the town.

"When I started off in Bolton it was a thriving commercial town but obviously the internet is the future and I think that is where we are going to have to go in the future."

Crompton Place Shopping centre manager Paula Wood confirmed that jewellery store, Midas, had closed.

She said: “This is obviously unfortunate, especially for the staff at the store. 

“As with all our tenants we’ll be providing support wherever possible to those employed by Midas at Crompton Place.

“We are striving to evolve the shopping experience at Crompton Place to ensure we have the best possible, varied, retail proposition for our shoppers. 

“We are currently talking to several new and exciting retail and food brands about taking space in the centre.

“We look forward to being able to announce new tenants in the near future.”

It is the second jewellers in the town to announce its closure in the last year after Preston's revealed it was holding a closing down sale.

Prestons of Bolton had been in the town centre for around 150 years and had been described as the 'Diamond Centre of the North'.

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According to owners, it had also succumbed to the 'decline in the high street'.