First Laura Ashley store to close

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The first store opened by high street chain Laura Ashley is set to close in the New Year, staff have been told.

The shop in Llanidloes, Powys, opened after the late designer and her husband moved from Kent to Powys in 1961.

Former MP Lord Hooson, who was once a director of the firm, said it was "a great blow for the town".

The Laura Ashley company has been asked for a comment. The firm has told the Shropshire Star newspaper the store was too small for its product range.

The Great Oak Street premises in Llanidloes is expected to close its doors for the last time on 12 January.

The store was the first to bear their brand name after the couple launched the business.

She'd have been absolutely horrified Lord Hooson, former Laura Ashley director

By 1981, when the firm moved into home furnishings, it had 5,000 retail outlets worldwide.

Lord Hooson, who helped the couple when they decided to move to the area, described the expected closure of the Llanidloes store as "crazy".

He said: "A great deal of goodwill in the whole area is still felt towards Laura Ashley.

"She'd have been absolutely horrified. She was very much a mother figure in this area.

"She took not only an interest in the company, she took an enormous interest in everybody employed in it.

Exhibition

"She had a materialistic view. However successful she was, she always wanted the local society to benefit from it.

In May this year, a three-year exhibition tracing the Welsh origins of the chain opened in mid Wales.

The company ran into financial difficulties in the 1990s, and it was eventually bought out.

The firm closed its Carno operation in 2004 but still has a factory in Newtown.