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A total of 119,948 new retail businesses were founded in 2021, with 46,972 of the businesses comprising online e-commerce start-ups and 7,965 new clothes shops, overtaking any other industry.
According to research by Yell Business, 16% of all new businesses founded last year were in retail, making it the fastest growing industry in the last year.
The data, acquired from Companies House, revealed that more businesses were founded in 2021 than in 2020, overtaking pre-pandemic 2019 figures despite another challenging year.
Additionally, the average of new businesses founded each month in 2021 increased 13% compared to 2019, primarily due to retail.
Claire Miles, chief executive officer of Yell, said: “With the challenges of the last two years, we might expect to find that fewer people were deciding to take the leap into the world of starting and running their own business. However, the data clearly shows that it has potentially inspired more people to take ownership of what they do for a living.
“With the background of the pandemic and numerous economic and supply chain challenges, it’s really encouraging to see that the entrepreneurial spirit of the UK is continuing to grow year-on-year.”
