Just as the UK moved in to the summer of 2016, the sun was setting for the final time on the Rushden branch of Oliver Adams bakery in the high street.

Northampton’s long-running bread and cake makers has had to let go 62 staff and closed 12 stores at the end of May.

Among 11 other stores have closed recently, there were three in Northampton, which included the one opposite The Old Bank pub on the corner of Wood Hill, the store at 209 Wellingborough Road, and one in Kettering Road.

Closures elsewhere are in Kettering, one in Wellingborough and Daventry, two in Rugby, and one in Newport Pagnell. The produce was delivered by van from Gladstone road in Northampton to their former 52 outlets on a daily basis.

The bakery in Newport Pagnell will close as soon the least expires, and the company will not seek to renew leases on four vacant shop units in the Birmingham area, which have not come up to expectation in the second city.

A Company Voluntary Agreement (CVA) was signed by nearly all of the creditors the firm owes money to. The move will allow Oliver Adams to repay them a lesser figure over the next five years.

The company owes a total of £1.7 million and has slimmed down the business. They intend carrying on trading on a smaller scale.