The High Street hardware store opened today (Thursday, May 1) under the new ownership of Worthing-based Bunce's Home Hardware, marking the end of more than two centuries of trading in the town by the Ockenden family.

The imminent retirement of three long-standing directors, including the only member of the family line still involved in the business, prompted the sale of an enterprise which began in a humble blacksmith's shed, boomed with the bustling harbour in Victorian times and then flourished with the major housebuilding of the 20th century.

All six staff are transferring under the deal, and the store will join Bunce's network of Sussex shops in Worthing, Horsham, Steyning, Storrington and Lewes, employing almost 50 people.

The sale has been one of the worst-kept secrets in the town centre, but protracted negotiations over many months meant that both parties wanted to stay tight-lipped until everything was signed and sealed.

Ockendens' managing director John Stevens said the company had wanted to sell to a similar business with a good track record in the hardware trade and the expertise to develop the store for the 21st century.

Sadness

"Bunce's fulfils that role, we feel, very well. There is a sense of relief that we can see, as far as we are able, that the business will now progress in a way we would have liked it to, had we been 20 years younger.

"There is sadness, when you see a piece of history disappear with the oldest established private company in Littlehampton, dating back to 1802, but a fair degree of pleasure as well, in that we are passing it into safe hands.

"We feel this will be beneficial for customers, for the town and for our staff. I don't think we have lost anything other than the name, but we have created a situation where the business can develop and prosper, with far more modern methods of retailing than we achieve at the moment."

The last Ockenden by name to serve as a director, Howard, died in 1966 and his grand-daughter, Jillian Gibb, is the surviving link on the board, along with her husband Brian, Mr Stevens and a fourth director appointed only recently.

Mr Stevens, who joined Ockendens on the shop floor in 1962, and had almost continuous service apart from two years with a garage business, will continue to look after Ockenden's property portfolio, as a separate business. It includes the High Street premises which Bunce's is leasing.

Bunce's managing director David Bunce, the third generation of his family at the helm of the company, said: "Ockenden's fits in very well with our established business. It's not too close to our other branches, nor too far away for delivery runs.

"It is one of those businesses we have had on our radar for some time and when it came up we were very interested."

Mr Bunce said there would be gradual changes at the store, as the company got to know the customers, but new stock would be introduced and there would be five promotions a year in line with the main store at Worthing and the other branches.

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