London record shop Low Company is closing for good as a physical and online store this Friday (August 21).

The news was confirmed in a typically lengthy newsletter penned by Low Company founder, and previous Blackest Ever Black head honcho, Kiran Sande, who explained that the COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated the shop's closure, which was originally planned for spring 2021. He adds that he considered moving the Hackney shop to a new location nearby, but decided to close the operation for good as the new location required taking out an eight-year lease.

"We're not disappearing off the face of the earth," Sande's letter says. "The eponymous label will continue. So will the manufacturing and distribution of a handful of other labels in our loose family (new releases from Bobby Would, Nkisi, Gewissen, Jane Arden++ all imminent).

"But the shop – as physical entity and as tragicomic group endeavour - is done. We will not be opening the door of our Hackney Downs abode again. And please, we won't be 'pivoting to online-only' – whoever dreamed of running a webshop? If/when I do sell anything via the Low Company site, shipped from my hovel on the soft south coast, it will be sporadically, and grudgingly. To reiterate: THE SHOP IS DONE."

You can read the full newsletter here.