Button Boutique in Wellingborough town centre to close at end of September unless a buyer can be found in the eleventh hour

Button Boutique, a mainstay of Wellingborough town centre for decades, will close its doors on September 30, unless a buyer can be found to keep it going.

Its owner, Jean Wilcox, is retiring on September 30, meaning the business will be left without stewardship, with no buyers currently willing to take on the shop and its assets.

She said: "I am sad, I’m very disappointed to see the shop go, but on the other hand, I need to retire.”

In 2020 Jean made the decision to keep the shop in business on a part-time basis, but in the years since it’s now clear that a full retirement is in order.

Jean added: “I think partial retirement is worse than retiring, you get those few days at home which is a taster, but this time it feels more definite.”

Jean took over the business in 2012 in a ‘very last minute’ takeover, and in the decade since it’s endured the pandemic and the cost of living crisis to remain a mainstay of a town centre that has struggled to recover.

She admits that the last decade has been ‘fun’, however also said: “It is beginning to get less fun now, as you get older it’s more like hard work.

"That’s why I want to go, because I feel I’m beginning to let it run down.”

Since JanKnits in Park Road closed its doors in July, Button Boutique has been one of the few remaining craft stores, and though optimism for a new buyer is low, the opportunity to take on the shop is there until its scheduled closure on September 30.