Revitalising Derby's historic Bennetts department store

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Geoff Burch gets to work

It claims to be Britain's oldest department store but customer numbers are down at Bennetts in Derby.

The drop in footfall was blamed on the arrival of Derby's Westfield Centre and the recession.

Inside Out took business guru Geoff Burch to the family-run store to see if he could help revive their fortunes.

On his first visit he said: "It's brilliant. It's a living museum but you can't make money out of a living museum, that's the problem."

Mr Burch was alluding to the "Aladdin's Cave" nature of the department store, you can buy everything from Russian dolls to snow shovels.

The 275-year-old store also has a food hall, a hardware department and a brassiere.

Former army captain Simon Ingham is Bennetts' Managing Director.

"When the Westfield Centre opened [in 2007] we saw an immediate drop in our footfall into the store.

"Coupled with that, the recession [was] looming [and] we were worried."

Geoff Burch loved the quirkier aspects of Bennetts

Geoff Burch first visited Bennetts in April, 2010.

The troubleshooter found the hardware section, with its pre-metric sized nut and bolts, as "wonderful but kind of tragic."

He was doubtful that Bennetts could make money and worked on a plan to help claw back some customers.

Mr Burch called it "tough love" when he reported back to store manager Simon Ingham.

He wanted Bennetts to be "dragged by the scruff of the neck back into the 21st century" and commented on the lack of lighting in the windows and the staff not wearing uniforms.

Mr Burch also wanted Mr Ingham to makeover the more dated aspects of the store and set aside areas to attract younger buyers.

Bennetts went along with the challenge and made some dramatic changes.

BBC Inside Out East Midlands took Geoff Burch back to Bennetts. To see what happened next watch the programme on BBC One on Monday, 6 December at 7.30pm.