BAKE OFF
Beloved high street bakery to shut its doors after 70 years as customers cry ‘best cakes & sausages rolls I’ve ever had’
The iconic bakery has left loyal customers "gutted" by the unexpected announcement
A BELOVED family-run bakery is to shut its doors after 70 years in yet another blow to high streets.
Central Bakery in Leominster, Herefordshire, announced the closure on Friday - and it's left loyal customers "gutted."
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The closure of the iconic bakery came "with deep sadness" and was a ";very difficult and emotional" decision.
The Burke family made the announcement to heartbroken customers on Facebook, saying the pandemic, the death of David Burke and escalating costs drove it to a close.
The post also blames the dwindling footfall of the three-generation-run bakery on the development of the high street.
Central Bakery said: "After nearly 70 years of trading as Central Bakery this decision has been a very difficult and emotional one.
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"We have loved being one of the focal points of Leominster and most of our customers and people of Leominster won’t remember a time without the Central Bakery being there.
"We would like to take this opportunity to thank all of our customers for your many years of support.
"So between now and when we close, please come in and grab your favourite Central Bakery goodies whilst you can."
Heartbroken locals took to the comments to express their sadness.
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One person said: "So sad. The best cakes & sausages rolls I’ve ever had."
Another commented: "I have many memories coming into the shop. My Nan worked there from as far back as I can remember until her retirement. The best custard slices I have ever tasted."
Why are shops closing stores?
And: "Absolutely gutted, I grew up coming here."
But the tragic closure isn't the first of its kind.
It comes after the owners of Lawrance's Bakery and Bar in Cornwall said they have faced "really hard decisions" over shutting its doors.
Owners Phil Lawrance and Lucy Curnow have already closed one of their three locations - their Falmouth store.
Now they and are set to shut the doors of the Truro Bar on New Bridge Street, which they opened five years ago.
Phil and Lucy said in posts on social media: "You might have noticed we’ve been very quiet on here. We have made some really hard decisions to start winding down Lawrance’s.
"With the leases of both Truro shops coming to an end we felt naturally this would be the right time for us to start closing the doors and opening a new chapter for us both.
"We want to say a massive thank you to everyone who has supported us over the last 5 years and to all of our incredible staff who have been on this journey.
"It has been an amazing ride and we are super proud of what we have managed to achieve with Lawrance’s."
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The New Bridge Street store is set to close today after hosting a goodbye party last night.
The bakery in Truro is set to stick around a little longer, but the Falmouth location has already been closed.
Why are retailers closing shops?
EMPTY shops have become an eyesore on many British high streets and are often symbolic of a town centre’s decline.
The Sun's business editor Ashley Armstrong explains why so many retailers are shutting their doors.
In many cases, retailers are shutting stores because they are no longer the money-makers they once were because of the rise of online shopping.
Falling store sales and rising staff costs have made it even more expensive for shops to stay open. In some cases, retailers are shutting a store and reopening a new shop at the other end of a high street to reflect how a town has changed.
The problem is that when a big shop closes, footfall falls across the local high street, which puts more shops at risk of closing.
Retail parks are increasingly popular with shoppers, who want to be able to get easy, free parking at a time when local councils have hiked parking charges in towns.
Many retailers including Next and Marks & Spencer have been shutting stores on the high street and taking bigger stores in better-performing retail parks instead.
Boss Stuart Machin recently said that when it relocated a tired store in Chesterfield to a new big store in a retail park half a mile away, its sales in the area rose by 103 per cent.
In some cases, stores have been shut when a retailer goes bust, as in the case of Wilko, Debenhams Topshop, Dorothy Perkins and Paperchase to name a few.
What’s increasingly common is when a chain goes bust a rival retailer or private equity firm snaps up the intellectual property rights so they can own the brand and sell it online.
They may go on to open a handful of stores if there is customer demand, but there are rarely ever as many stores or in the same places.
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