Clas Ohlson fascia

I’m not sure whether Clas Ohlson’s people are reading this blog, or whether – more likely – the obvious locations for new UK stores are fairly easy to identify.

Either way, I was interested to spot that the Swedish retailer has this week signed contracts for new stores in shopping centres in Cardiff and Norwich – following on from my post, in June, where I suggested that “Nottingham, Cardiff, Norwich, Bristol and Southampton [are] among the top retail centres that could well be on Clas Ohlson’s hit list.”

Both shops are scheduled to open in December, shortly after the previously announced new store at Merry Hill, and will be similar in size to the existing Clas Ohlson shop at Liverpool’s Clayton Square. Their opening will increase the number of Clas Ohlson stores in the UK to ten.

The Norwich store is to be located in unit 13 of the Chapelfield shopping centre, occupying retail space of 1,570 sqm (16,899 sq ft) in what I understand used to be the lower level of the city’s Borders store – a prime spot opposite H&M.

At 1,640 sqm (17,653 sq ft), Cardiff’s store, in the St David’s centre, is a similar size to the one in Norwich. St David’s was extended and refurbished at the end of last year, with an impressive new John Lewis as its centrepiece, and I’m assuming that Clas Ohlson will occupy one of those new units that has not so far attracted a tenant.

Interestingly, both Chapelfield and St David’s are owned (wholly and partly respectively) by Capital Shopping Centres. With CSC also owning Watford’s Harlequin and Manchester’s Arndale (as I noted here), it will mean that four of Clas Ohlson’s ten UK stores are in CSC locations.

On this basis, how long can it be before CSC’s Eldon Square in Newcastle or MetroCentre in Gateshead also gets in on the Clas Ohlson act?

UPDATE, 30 August 2010: It’s been announced today that Clas Ohlson has also signed for a 1,760 sqm (18,944 sq ft) store in Doncaster’s Frenchgate Shopping Centre. There seems to be no word on the exact location yet, though I’m wondering if it will be the still-empty former Woolies site.

Iceland continues to pick up more Woolies stores - this one in Hexham was acquired in January

It looks like the pace of Woolworths stores finding new occupants may be picking up, with more than twenty new announcements since I last blogged on the issue – at this rate I won’t be able to keep up!

Once again, the list of incoming retailers is as eclectic as we have come to expect:

• Blairgowrie: The Original Factory Shop (still tbc, subject to building issues) – full story
• Bristol (Hartcliffe): What Stores Ltd (family-owned DIY and variety store – I can’t find a website, buy you can read people’s reviews of the Cardiff superstore here) – full story
• Cannock: Poundland – full story
• Christchurch: 99p Stores – full story
• Colchester: QD Stores (independent discount retailer in the east of England) – full story
• Elgin: Poundland – full story
• Hawick: Farmfoods – full story
• Kingston-upon-Thames: Clas Ohlson – full story
• Leigh: Tesco Express - full story
• Nottingham: Poundworld – full story
• Peterhead: Iceland – full story
• Reading: Clas Ohlson (tbc – planning permission applied for) - full story
• Rotherham: B&M Bargains – full story
• Rustington: The Original Factory Shop – full story
• Stourbridge: Home Bargains – full story
• Thurso: Ethel Austin – full story
• Uckfield: WHSmith – full story
• Waltham Cross: British Heart Foundation (tbc – planning application submitted) – full story
• Wick: Ethel Austin – full story
• Worksop: B&M Bargains (tbc) – full story
• Wymondham: The Co-operative Food – full story

Meanwhile, the old Woolies in Rye looks set to become the town’s new library. This is positive in the short term in so far as it brings an empty building back into use. In the longer term, I’m not sure whether the viability of town centres is best served by taking over prime retail units for non-retail functions…