Barnard Bakers retail shop in Henfield High Street will close its doors for the last time on Christmas Eve (24 December 2015) after 26 years serving the village. David Barnard, director of Barnard Bakers Ltd, stated that the difficult decision was being made after several years of falling sales, increasing costs and supermarket and online competition in the retail side of the business. His wholesale baking business will continue trading as normal at the bakery behind the shop.
Barnard’s currently employs 30 staff, part and full time, with nine part time staff facing redundancy from the shop closure. David said; “It’s been a long hard decision, the shop has been in slow decline and losing money for several years. We have had re-fits and expanded our café, but it’s a very competitive market and our location on a now very busy corner is not in our favour. The staff are like family, I am so sad for them and I know our regular customers will be very disappointed. We will continue to sell our bread in Budgens in Henfield and we will still be very busy with the wholesale side of the business. It’ll be a sad day on Christmas Eve for us all, but for the health of the business we had to make this decision.”
There has been a bakery at ‘Cruttenden Corner’ for the last 124 years. Arthur Cruttenden opened a bakery there around 1891 and it stayed in the family until Dunford’s took over in 1965. David’s father Colin bought the business in 1989 and David joined himself in 1991. To say that the bakery has been a village institution is an understatement.
Jo Goodburn, who has worked for 10 years behind the counter at Barnard Bakers, said; “I have loved working here, it’s a real buzz and seeing our local customers every day. I’ve lived in the village my whole life and I remember Cruttenden’s. I’m very sad but also not surprised, there are a lot less people walking into the village past the shop these days. David has been great to work for and we will all miss him and the shop, it’s a sad day for us all and for the whole village.”
Emma Osman
