A couple behind a craft store say they are “cutting their loses” and closing after 25 years amid struggles to make a profit.

Karen and Peter Ingelbrecht opened PenKraft Hobby Store in Cheriton, Folkestone, in the summer of 1999, having launched the business five years earlier in Essex.

But, three decades later the pair say they have no choice but to shut the doors, blaming the impact of the Covid pandemic and customers now making a switch to online shopping.

“It’s a hobby we’re now paying for,” Mrs Ingelbrecht said. “Online shopping has emptied the high street. It’s really quiet now.

“We decided in January that we were going to close.

“We had cut our hours, we hadn't had a great Christmas and then we thought, why are we still doing it?

“We have got 30 years' worth of stock and we are now going to run down until Christmas Eve.”

Mrs Ingelbrecht, from Folkestone, says by the time they shut she will be 65 – so not even old enough to claim her pension.

“I’m not even going to get a pension for the first nine months after the shop goes,” she said. “I'm just going to have to exist on Peter’s pension.

“If you're not making a living wage, what do you do? Do you keep going until there's nothing left in the bank or do you cut your losses?”

The National Living Wage (NLW) is a minimum wage that UK employers must pay to employees who are at least 21 years old. Current rates show the NLW is £11.44 an hour.

Mrs Ingelbrecht said after reopening following several lockdowns, customer numbers halved.

“As soon as we came back after lockdowns, we realised that our customer base had been depleted and, at that point, we were very aware that we couldn't keep stocking the shelves the way we used to,” she added.

“We had to be very careful on not just buying all the new stuff to keep on point, but being very strategic about only buying order minimums to be able to get our orders delivery-free.

“But we still had a decent amount of choice for people on the shelves so they weren't looking at the same things every time they came in.

“Back in the last century, we dealt with 104 suppliers and the shop did an absolutely enormous range of things, but our suppliers started to go under and one by one, the big names of the suppliers were also being amalgamated, or taken over, or ceasing to trade.

“We found that it was more difficult to find the stock we wanted because we pride ourselves on being a service as well as just a shop so that if someone's looking for something, we'll find it for them.”

As well as facing the struggle of fewer customers, Mrs Ingelbrecht explained that the number of workshops and children's parties has also dried up.

“I used to do lots of tutorials and workshops with the Women's Institute and local schools and children’s birthday parties – I’d be out four to six times a week,” she said.

“After Covid, everybody was very, very iffy about people coming into their homes and maybe bringing something and they didn't even have birthday parties. So that part of our income just disappeared.”

On their last day of trading - Christmas Eve - the couple will invite customers to a party inside the shop where drinks and nibbles will be available, as well as the last of the stock.

Once retired, Mr Ingelbrecht, 68, and Mrs Ingelbrech plan to spend more time with their family, which consists of six children and three grandchildren.

They also do a lot of work within the community; they are both scout leaders, involved at their local church and Mr Ingelbrecht has recently become chairman of Hythe Lawn Tennis Club.