TOWN centre trade in Wellington suffered a shock this week as Mary Jenkins Farm Shop closed suddenly.

The High Street greengrocers was taken over five years ago by Paul Shipp and his wife Kim, who said they had ploughed £100,000 into the business.

Now, they are understood to have vacated the premises, leaving it near-empty apart from some fruit and vegetables still visible on the shelves.

The closure comes two weeks after the opening of an edge of town Lidl supermarket and exactly a year since Mr Shipp warned in the Wellington Weekly that he was seriously thinking of leaving town if his profit margins did not improve.

Mr Shipp said at the time: “I am making only half the money I was during the pandemic.

“Wellington is like a ghost town on Saturday afternoons.

“Everything is going up - and I have to pay my staff. My overheads are much higher than they were five years ago.”

Mr Shipp, who lives in Norton Fitzwarren, said he had lost 20 per cent of his takings following the closure of the Post Office in the former One Stop store in High Street.

He warned of the demise of the High Street if people did not support their local shops.

Mr Shipp took over the store from landlord Jeff Jenkins, who ran the shop with his wife Mary for many years.

Mr Jenkins told the Wellington Weekly this week: “He has just up and gone. I do not think the staff were aware of it earlier this week.

“Stock has been left in the shop and some removed.”

There was no sign on the front of the shop to say it had closed.