SAUSAGE lovers are feeling depressed after queuing up to get their favourite bangers for the last time.

Much to the sadness of its loyal customers, Kennedy's butchers sold its last products on December 22 after more than 130 years in business.

The popular chain had nine stores across south-east London, including two in Bromley and others in West Wickham, Penge and Deptford.

One of the customers who went to the store at 11 High Street, Bromley, on its final morning of business was 57-year-old Paul Hastings.

Mr Hastings said: "We used to buy their sausages regularly and give them to family and friends.

"It is a loss for a lot of people.

"My wife's mother remembers them from when she was a child, and when we moved to Bromley, we started eating them regularly."

The resident of Valley Road, Shortlands, added: "I just like the whole old-fashioned ambience of the shop.

"It must be closing because of commercial pressures."

Maria Lougheed, 32, of Downham Way, Downham, said: "It is depressing.

"My whole family has been brought up on them and the sausages in the supermarkets do not compare."

Sixty-three-year-old Brenda Carmody said she had been eating Kennedy's sausages since she was a child.

The resident of Crossbrook Road, Eltham, said: "They are the only sausages I really eat so I am really upset about this.

"I do not know why they have had to close."

Despite customers' disappointment they would now have to go elsewhere for their bangers, Kennedy's said there was no chance they could have stayed open.

Director Chris Kennedy, based at the company's factory in Peckham, told the News Shopper in October increasing overheads and a decline in trade was the reason for the closure.

He said: "At the end of the day, someone has to say it's time to stop. "