Beloved DIY chain suddenly shuts ALL its stores for good after 87 years as shoppers mourn ‘huge loss of real asset’
Eighty staff have been let go
A BELOVED DIY chain has reportedly closed all of its stores for good.
Shoppers have described Blanchford & Co Ltd, also known as Blanchford Building Supplies, as a “real asset” to the community – and dubbed its abrupt closure a “huge loss”.
Run out of four branches across Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire, Blanchford Building Supplies sold a variety of home improvement products, from paint to tools and timber.
The family business also offered customised services to private and corporate clients – including full-scale bathrooms and kitchens, as well as plumbing, heating and lighting.
It closed its doors for good on February 14, according to online reports.
Loyal customers rushed to share their disappointment, with one saying: “Our town is losing a real asset.”
Another shared poignant memories of the store from her childhood, writing: “So sad.
“Huge part of my childhood was going there with my dad to buy supplies and being sat up on the counter as I wasn’t tall enough to see over it.”
And a third echoed: “Very sad times have been using Blanchfords for years.”
Meanwhile, others expressed their sympathies to the 80 staff who have lost their jobs following the unexpected closure.
One said: “Thoughts are with those who have lost their jobs.”
And another typed: “Really gutted for the staff that have been here so long, always done me good deals along the way, a real asset to Princes Risborough that is going to be missed..”
The first branch was opened on Queens Street, central Oxford, by brothers Fred, Cecil and Ronald Blanchford in 1938.
Following early success, the trio then decided to move the burgeoning business to Headington in east Oxford.
It expanded to the neighbouring county of Buckinghamshire in the 1960s – with a second outlet in Princes Risborough.
And in 2012, another branch opened in Wallingford, Oxfordshire – before a final store launched in Bicester.
News of the closure comes after a high street fashion chain, Quiz Clothing shut its Peterborough store as it battled administration.
Meanwhile, a beloved car garage, abruptly shut down – as its owner, Tony Evens, said he had been left devastated by a parking row that ended the business.
Of the local Village Hall Committee, he told The Sun: “I’m done, they have jeopardised my business and they don’t seem to care. I’ve had to close the workshop because of this and I am broken.”
And, the newly opened Otterburns restaurant in Runcorn, Cheshire, mysteriously closed – following months of planning and construction.
The Sun has contacted Blanchford Building Supplies for comment.
RETAIL PAIN IN 2025
The British Retail Consortium has predicted that the Treasury's hike to employer NICs will cost the retail sector £2.3billion.
Research by the British Chambers of Commerce shows that more than half of companies plan to raise prices by early April.
A survey of more than 4,800 firms found that 55% expect prices to increase in the next three months, up from 39% in a similar poll conducted in the latter half of 2024.
Three-quarters of companies cited the cost of employing people as their primary financial pressure.
The Centre for Retail Research (CRR) has also warned that around 17,350 retail sites are expected to shut down this year.
It comes on the back of a tough 2024 when 13,000 shops closed their doors for good, already a 28% increase on the previous year.
Professor Joshua Bamfield, director of the CRR said: “The results for 2024 show that although the outcomes for store closures overall were not as poor as in either 2020 or 2022, they are still disconcerting, with worse set to come in 2025.”
Professor Bamfield has also warned of a bleak outlook for 2025, predicting that as many as 202,000 jobs could be lost in the sector.
“By increasing both the costs of running stores and the costs on each consumer’s household it is highly likely that we will see retail job losses eclipse the height of the pandemic in 2020.”