A LUXURY women's shoe store in the west end of Edinburgh is closing its doors, just days after it emerged that the district's retailers were launching a drive to revitalise the area.
Designer footwear boutique, Helen Bateman, will cease trading on February 7 after 15 years.
Owner, Ms Bateman, said she wanted to "take the Pete Sampras route" and go out on a high in order to pursue other business projects.
It comes after plans were unveiled to boost footfall in the area, which was one of the worst affected during the capital's tram works, by turning it into a Business Improvement District (BID). The initiative will see around 150 firms across 20 streets paying levies to fund improvements such as new signage, advertising and marketing campaigns.
However, Ms Bateman, whose shop is located in William Street, said she was closing the business to explore new ventures.
In a statement posted on the website yesterday, she wrote: "After 15 incredible years, I have taken the huge decision to close the business. With the shop thriving and online sales growing apace, I've decided to take the Pete Sampras route and quit at the top.
"I have long had other projects in my sights and with my 50th birthday on its way, I've decided that it's now or never.
"Thanks you to all of you who have been such fabulous customers over the years. I've really enjoyed designing for you."
She said the shop would close with a "big all day party" on Saturday, February 7 with customers encouraged to come along.
The statement added that any shoes purchased or returned during the final reductions period would not be affected after the boutique closed.
Ms Bateman said: "We will still be there to meet the postman and ensure that any sales returns are refunded as long as they are back to us within 14 days of the date of purchase."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article