Shrewsbury - Economy

Economy

Throughout the Medieval period, Shrewsbury was a centre for the wool trade, and used its position on the River Severn to transport goods across England via the canal system. Unlike many other towns in this period, Shrewsbury never became a centre for heavy industry. By the early 1900s, the town became focused on transport services and the general service and professional sector, owing to its position on the A5 road, part of the strategic route to North Wales.

The town is the location of the town and county councils, and a number of retail complexes, both in and out of the town centre, and these provide significant employment. Four in five jobs in the town are in the service industry. Within this sector, the largest employers are the administration and distribution sectors, which includes retail, food and accommodation.

Shrewsbury is home to four shopping centres. The principal centres comprise the Darwin and Pride Hill shopping centres, which house many High Street retailers such as Marks & Spencer, H&M, Next, and Boots. Riverside provides further retail accommodation for stores including Wilkinson. A plan to redevelop Riverside and integrate a new development with the Darwin and Pride Hill centres was granted planning permission in April 2012. The project is dubbed "New Riverside". The Parade Shopping Centre is a fourth centre exclusively housing independent retailers. There are also two retail warehouse clusters: at Meole Brace Retail Park to the south, and at Sundorne Retail Park to the north. Major supermarkets in the town are the environmentally friendly Tesco Extra at Harlescott, Morrisons on Whitchurch Road, Asda on Old Potts Way and Sainsbury's at Meole Brace. A Waitrose supermarket scheme to the south could - if approved - open by the end of 2013.

The visitor economy of Shrewsbury and Atcham was worth about £115 million in 2001, with approximately 2,500 people employed directly in the visitor industry and 3,400 indirectly. There were about 3.1 million visitors—both day visitors and staying visitors—to the borough in 2001, with 88% being day visitors and 12% being staying visitors; staying visitors accounted for 42% of spending. Shrewsbury's position of being the only sizable town for a large area, especially to the west in Mid-Wales, allows it to attract a large retail base beyond that of its resident population. This is not only evident in the retail sector, but also in the healthcare sector, where the Royal Shrewsbury Hospital has the only A&E department westwards until Aberystwyth, approximately 75 miles (121 km) away.

Although a less prominent brewing centre than at Burton-on-Trent, beer made in Shrewsbury was celebrated as early as about 1400 when bard Iolo Goch praised the supply of "Crwg Amwythig" dispensed at the Sycharth palace of Owain Glyndwr. In 1900 there were eight breweries in the town, chief among them being Southam's and Trouncer's, which also had their own maltings and owned many local public houses, as well as five other maltsters, but the conventional brewing industry gradually closed down after takeovers in the 1960s, and the last maltings, at Ditherington, in 1986. A real ale brewery was established in the town in 1995. The Salopian Brewery is based in the Old Dairy in Mytton Oak Road, and produces cask ale and bottle conditioned beers. It has a production of 80 barrels a week and mainly serves the pubs in and around Shrewsbury.

In terms of social and economic deprivation, according to the Overall Index of Multiple Deprivation of 2004, one Super Output Area (SOA) in the town is in the bottom 15% of all areas nationally. This area is located in the ward of Harlescott. A further four SOAs fall into the bottom 30% nationally, these being located in the wards of Monkmoor, Sundorne, Battlefield and Heathgates, and Meole Brace. The most affluent areas of the town are generally located to the south and west, around the grounds of Shrewsbury School, and the Copthorne area.