"This was supposed to be our 'bounce back' year, but it hasn't worked out that way"

Marcus Sandwith, third-generation owner of Eve & Ranshaw since 2019 after taking on the business from his father David, has said the whole family is “very sad” following the announcement that the store would close on March 4 due to the impact of the cost of living crisis and the Covid-19 pandemic.

"It's not been an easy time for us, we've been there for a long time and it's been a difficult time in recent years,” he said.

Mr Sandwith said that the business had tried incredibly hard to improve the store and move with the times over the last few years including, introducing introducing online and retail point-of-sale system Shopify, hiring a head buyer from John Lewis, introducing more concessions, but when the Covid-19 pandemic hit, the struggle became harder and harder: