Sudbury’s 75 year old department store, Winch & Blatch is closing down by mid-December of 2020. Speaking to Underlines Magazine, Judith Blatch commented: “The decline of bricks and mortar high street sales combined with this pandemic has unfortunately led my husband and I to decide to close down. It is a heart-breaking decision, not only for us personally, but also our loyal staff and customers (who are all buying multiple bras as they do not know where they will shop in future).”
The independent department store had four locations and all but the homeware store in Sudbury will be closed by end of the year. Townrow, a family owned business, (with stores in Maldon, St Ives and Frinton) has acquired the homeware store from Winch & Blatch and will retain six members of staff.
This sad news follows the closure of See-Saw Lingerie in Hale in Cheshire just 3 weeks ago. This well established lingerie specialist had been a part of the local area since 1991 with the current owner, Johanna Bolhoven, taking over ownership in 2016. Johanna commented: “I’m devastated and heartbroken, and I still can’t quite believe it has happened. The See-Saw team are amazing and I would like to pay testament to all their hard work and dedication and I couldn’t be more proud. Nonetheless I I will never stop banging the drum for independents.”
Both of these independent stores until 2020 had been at the top of their game, winning numerous local and national business Awards.
