A GREETINGS card business, with stores in Monmouth and Chepstow, has assured customers their stores will be open once lockdown regulations allow - amid news Thorntons are to close all their stores.

Cardzone, while stocking Thorntons products, is not owned by the chocolate firm and will continue to operate.

In a statement, released on social media, Cardzone Chepstow said: "Thorntons have announced yesterday sadly that they are closing all of their retail stores with immediate effect due to the impact the COVID-19 pandemic has had on their business.

"We would like to take this opportunity to reassure all of our valued and loyal customers that we are not owned by Thornton’s and that we are a family run, independent business so this will not affect us we will not be closing our store.

"We will also continue to stock Thorntons chocolates.

"We look forward to reopening April 12 and welcoming you all back."

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The Monmouth store is also scheduled to reopen.

Thorntons had had a store in Newport for around 20 years.

A planned closure was delayed in April 2017 after a petition was launched, but the firm has since left the city.

Chocolate shop chain Thorntons is to shut all its 61 stores, putting 603 jobs at risk.

The retailer said it has been hit hard by the pandemic, which has kept many of its stores shut for key periods around Christmas and Easter.

The collapse of the store business is the latest high-profile failure on the UK high street, which has been battered by large periods of closures and depressed footfall.