Cynthia Styles to retire from New Milton’s Singer Sewing Centre

A NEW Milton business owner in her 90s says the time is now right for her to retire despite her lifelong love of retail.

Cynthia Styles said she has enjoyed every minute running the Singer Sewing Centre in Whitefield Road for the past 35 years.

The store will close at the end of the month, with Cynthia’s daughter Debby taking the reins and continuing to run the business from home.

Cynthia used to work as a saleswoman at a former Singer shop in Boscombe under owner Jimmy James. Mr James bought the Whitefield Road site in 1982 and Cynthia relocated with the role.

Cynthia bought the business from Mr James after he retired in 1989.

“I’ve had a lot of customers coming in and saying, ‘why are you retiring?’ Cynthia told the A&T.

“I was born in 1932. When I say I’m 91, they’re a bit surprised and say, ‘you don't look it’. I think they’re expecting me to carry on.

“Debby has been a partner in the business for 27 years now, she handles most of the repairs now and most of the selling.”

Cynthia continued: “We've had some fantastic customers coming in. They’ve been absolutely amazing; we’ve made a lot of friends over the years and we’ve sold hundreds of machines.”

Among her plans for retirement, Cynthia says she is looking forward to spending time with her husband but will not be booking any “fantastic holidays”.

“I’ve done all that,” she said. “When I was working for Singer directly at the old shop I used to get bonuses for hitting machine sales targets.

“Singer would send us on holidays – I’ve been to the Caribbean, and on cruises, and have been to Spain quite a few times.

“Singer always looked after us if we sold well - some of those Singer and Pfaff machines are worth up to £14,000.

“I will definitely miss the people. I enjoy selling and I always have done, I enjoy helping customers – they’re all friends.”

Debby said she will continue to run the business from home, collecting and delivering sewing machines for repairs, selling, and running sewing classes online.

The A&T understands neighbouring Jasmine Thai Therapy will be taking over the premises.