The Crafters Emporium, Oxfordshire set to close Bicester store

The Crafters Emporium will shut its shop on Sheep Street, Bicester in October – less than a month after it closed its site in Faringdon on June 30. 

The announcement was made in a letter to crafters last week, just days after The Enforcement Agency repossessed the company’s remaining shop on Cornmarket Street, Oxford due to unpaid rent. 

The business is now expected to file for insolvency after reports of crafters who sold stock in the store being left out of pocket by thousands of pounds. 

Crafter Miss Peachy, who joined the store in May, said she hadn’t been paid for any of her stock that had been sold since she teamed up with the company, leading to her collecting all of her items from the Oxford store on July 3. 

She claimed that the items were still on display when she arrived and that the company owners are still asking her to pay rent for July, despite all of her items having now been removed. 

Magdalena Bialas, who sold her handmade crafts in the Oxford and Bicester shop, said: ” Since at least August, I’ve had to chase my payments every single month.

“I still haven’t received my December payment.

“It’s definitely not cheap to be there — they take a really high commission on sales, and the rent for the space isn’t small either.

“I honestly feel like they’ve lost control of the situation and ended up in a cycle they can’t get out of.”

In 2023 the company reported a total of £319,818 in capital and reserves, meanwhile in 2025 it reported a total of £489,550.

The business announced the closure of their Faringdon store last month after six years in the town.

Natasha Martell opened her second Crafters’ Emporium, with another store in Didcot, which opened in October 2019 with a range of local artisan crafts people providing gifts.

An announcement regarding that store has not yet been made and it is believed to be open at this time. 

The Crafters Emporium specialises in handmade crafts, with crafts and gifts from more than 50 crafters across the UK.

Artists are picked by the shops directors and go through a selection process to have their work in the shop.

The Crafters’ Emporium has declined to comment.