AN iconic village bakery has announced its “very sad” closure after 155 years.
Palmers Bakery, in Stanton near Bury St Edmunds, has confirmed the branch will shut its doors in just weeks.
Palmers Bakery will shut its doors next month[/caption]
The popular bakery will pull down the shutters for the final time on Saturday, March 22.
Palmers have been running for over a century and confirmed it is the only shop affected.
They have other shops in Haughley, Stowmarket and Woolpit which will remain open, said the owners.
The bakery has been passed down through several generations of the Palmer family.
It continues to use ancient brick ovens to bake the bread and cakes.
Kieron Palmer, director of the family bakery told East Anglian Daily Times: “Unfortunately it not our choice.
“The leaseholders had a change in circumstances and need to sell the shop.
“It is very sad but our other shops in Haughley, Stowmarket and Woolpit will remain open, it is only the Stanton shop closing.”
Fans of the bakery took to social media to voice their frustration at the closure.
One said it was a “sad end” while another wrote that the shop “would be missed”.
It comes as another bakery may reopen some of its stores after it was forced to close all of its locations and let 100 employees go.
The business is renowned for its traditional bread, savoury pastries, and sweet treats.
The baked goods chain – established in 1905 and run by the same family ever since – managed to stay open through both World Wars, the Great Depression and the Covid pandemic.
Founded at the start of the 20th century by William Henry Oddie, the chain operates 13 stores in locations such as Burnley, Colne, Foulridge, Nelson, Padiham, and Todmorden, alongside a central bakery in Nelson
But managing director Lara Oddie has shown hope that negotiations may result in a return for the beloved franchise.
Elsewhere, another company faced a similar fate amid a sting of closures.
Copland Family Bakers shut the doors to both its stall on Great Yarmouth’s market and shop in nearby Gorleston after 57 years.
Meanwhile, Greggs has left customers “nearly crying” after revealing it’s set to close one of its branches.
The popular pastry and sandwich chain will pull down the shutters of one of its Cambridge stores in just over a month’s time.
The Greggs store on Fitzroy Street will close its doors for the last time on March 31.
The shop is set to shut as part of the Greggs estate strategy, which will see the chain open more stores this year.
Greggs has around 2,500 branches in the UK, including more than ten in Cambridgeshire.
Fans of the fast food chain took to social media to voice their frustration at the closure.
Why are retailers closing stores?
RETAILERS have been feeling the squeeze since the pandemic, while shoppers are cutting back on spending due to the soaring cost of living crisis.
High energy costs and a move to shopping online after the pandemic are also taking a toll, and many high street shops have struggled to keep going.
However, additional costs have added further pain to an already struggling sector.
The British Retail Consortium has predicted that the Treasury’s hike to employer NICs from April will cost the retail sector £2.3billion.
At the same time, the minimum wage will rise to £12.21 an hour from April, and the minimum wage for people aged 18-20 will rise to £10 an hour, an increase of £1.40.
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.”
It comes after almost 170,000 retail workers lost their jobs in 2024.
End-of-year figures compiled by the Centre for Retail Research showed the number of job losses spiked amid the collapse of major chains such as Homebase and Ted Baker.
It said its latest analysis showed that a total of 169,395 retail jobs were lost in the 2024 calendar year to date.
This was up 49,990 – an increase of 41.9% – compared with 2023.
It is the highest annual reading since more than 200,000 jobs were lost in 2020 in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic, which forced retailers to shut their stores during lockdowns.
The centre said 38 major retailers went into administration in 2024, including household names such as Lloyds Pharmacy, Homebase, The Body Shop, Carpetright and Ted Baker.
Around a third of all retail job losses in 2024, 33% or 55,914 in total, resulted from administrations.
Experts have said small high street shops could face a particularly challenging 2025 because of Budget tax and wage changes.
Professor Bamfield has 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.”
