Isabel Macdonald outside her new store

Tamworth’s new John Lewis at Home opened its doors on Wednesday (12 October), eight months after I broke the news of its impending arrival.

The 42,000 sq ft shop at the edge-of-town Ventura Park is John Lewis’s sixth in the ‘at Home’ format, following the opening of stores in Poole, Croydon, Swindon (which I recently visited), Tunbridge Wells and Chester. Further John Lewis at Home shops are set to open in Ashford, Newbury and Chichester during 2012, while the retailer’s new Exeter store – originally announced as an ‘at Home’ shop – will, as I recently noted, be the first of a new ‘flexible’ department store format.

Cutting the ribbon at John Lewis Tamworth

While the ‘at Home’ stores focus on furniture, homewares, furnishing accessories, electricals and home technology, John Lewis’s strength as a multichannel retailer – highlighted in my recent Bdaily column – means that the full John Lewis range is available to Tamworth shoppers via ‘Click and Collect’. Products can be ordered online or instore by 7pm, and picked up from the store after 2pm the next day.

In a recent tweet, I suggested that John Lewis’s arrival in Tamworth was the biggest single retail event to happen in the town for decades – probably since the opening of the Ankerside shopping centre, in 1980, transformed the town centre’s retail landscape. The fact that there is now a store called ‘John Lewis Tamworth’ is remarkable enough in itself, but the 218 jobs that have been created by the £7m store – 200 of which are brand-new John Lewis Partners – also make it one of the biggest single retail investments that Tamworth has ever seen.

One of the Partners to have transferred from elsewhere is the new branch manager, Isabel Macdonald, whose career with the company goes back nine years – including seven years in the Reading store before her most recent stint as operations manager at Solihull. Hours after the store’s opening, Isabel took a few moments out to chat to me about getting the store ready for launch; the excitement of the opening morning; how John Lewis is seeking to establish itself as part of the Tamworth community; and how it is a “dream come true” to be branch manager of a store just twenty miles from where she was born and grew up.

Opening preparations

John Lewis at Home, Tamworth (3 Sep 2011)

John Lewis Tamworth’s transformation from a steel frame when I first visited in June to a fully-clad building in September and an operational store now is pretty impressive, and the efficiency of the process to train new Partners and stock the store is no less remarkable.

Isabel told me that her own work at Tamworth started seven weeks before opening, working with her team to ensure that the store had the “best-trained” Partners who would “give customers the service they would expect from John Lewis.” Meanwhile, she revealed that the process of filling the store with £3m of stock had taken just nine days to complete.

Three hours after the store opened at 9am, Isabel reported that cars had been “flooding in” to the 311-space car park, and that there had been 100 customers waiting in the queue for the doors to open – including one keen gentleman who had arrived at 6am. Early customer comments had been “lovely”, and the 80-seater instore café was also gaining positive feedback.

Shoppers enter John Lewis at Home Tamworth

Given Ventura Park’s reputation for traffic chaos, I was bound to ask Isabel for her view on how the roads had coped in those first few hours. While it was obviously early days, she suggested that the recent improvements to the road layout and traffic control – initiated as a direct result of John Lewis’s arrival and the nearby B&Q-anchored Cardinal Point development – seemed to be working. Clearly it will be something to keep an eye on, however; as Isabel noted, “We are keen to work with retailers and the council to make sure that Ventura Park is the most convenient place to shop for customers in the West Midlands.”

Range

A month ago, Retail Week reported that John Lewis was planning “tweaks” to the ‘at Home’ format in response to a performance that was “a little bit below what we expected”, and I raised this with Isabel.

While Retail Week suggested that John Lewis at Home stores will start to stock some lower-priced items – such as pictures, mirrors and rugs – Isabel was clear that the retailer’s longstanding ‘Never Knowingly Undersold’ promise stands it in good stead: “What customers are saying is that they want to know they are getting value from John Lewis – that’s not necessarily being ‘cheap’, but offering value in terms of quality, price and service.” She gave the example of how the Tamworth store is offering a new, fully bespoke furnishing fabric service, where curtains can be ordered in custom sizes.

Birmingham

Not long after news emerged of Tamworth being the first John Lewis at Home in the Midlands, the Partnership announced, back in February, that a new full-line, 250,000 sq ft department store would open in Birmingham in 2014 – just 20 miles or 30 minutes’ drive away. With John Lewis already present in Solihull, Leicester and Nottingham, is this not a lot of stores in a relatively small area?

Seemingly not. Citing John Lewis’s investment in both online and shops, Isabel was clear that “the Tamworth and Birmingham shops have distinct catchments, and there is enough room for both to trade successfully”. While the Birmingham store is about having a presence in a major city centre, Tamworth – and the ‘at Home’ format generally – is “all about convenience”. The transport connections to Ventura Park seem to have been a big factor in choosing that location, with Isabel noting that the new Tamworth store will also serve towns such as Lichfield and Sutton Coldfield that have previously been outside a John Lewis catchment.

Town centre impact 

The latest CACI Retail Footprint map flagged Ventura Park as the UK’s tenth biggest retail park by expenditure; the arrival of John Lewis, with a new B&Q, Maplin and Next to follow, will surely propel it up the rankings. So, what does all this mean for Tamworth town centre – a location that has already rather struggled to define itself as major retailers like WHSmith and New Look have decamped to the edge of town?

Isabel was clear that John Lewis aims to work alongside the local retail community and to help “make Tamworth the best possible destination”. She observed that data following previous ‘at Home’ openings has demonstrated a “John Lewis effect for the whole area”, as shoppers take the opportunity to check out other attractions in those locations. The positive impact of the 200 new jobs will also filter through into the local economy, she argued, with many of the new Partners living in the Tamworth area.

Apart from the footfall and economic benefits, Isabel noted that her store is also working with three local charities – Tamworth Volunteer Centre, Rosie’s Helping Hands, and Bancroft Community Association – who took part in the opening-day ribbon-cutting ceremony and will each benefit from a donation from the retailer’s Community Matters scheme.

For all Tamworth town centre’s flaws – most notably its underwhelming market and lack of upmarket stores – there is, as I’ve observed before, much for visitors to enjoy. Visitors recently flocked to the Staffordshire Hoard exhibition at Tamworth Castle; the UltraSound Music Festival attracted a younger crowd to enjoy artists such as Tinie Tempah and The Wanted; and the town’s colourful floral displays this summer were, as always, among the best anywhere. The town centre also has some interesting and distinctive shops – notably the Irish fashion retaiiler, Dunnes; the independent Tamworth Co-op department store; and plenty of appealing independents.

John Lewis at Home is different to many of the other tenants at Ventura Park in that there was never any question of it being able to, or wanting to, open in Tamworth town centre. Ultimately, I would argue, it’s a format that works best on a retail park, and that was attracted to Tamworth specifically because of Ventura Park’s popularity and location.

However, if Isabel is right, and even a small proportion of John Lewis’s visitors check out what the town centre has to offer, the arrival in Tamworth of one of retail’s biggest names may indeed be cause for wider optimism about the town centre’s future.

John Lewis fascia

As the vast Westfield Stratford City opens its doors today, it’s little wonder that most of Twitter’s retail commentators seem to have decamped to east London. With 300 stores (though not yet all open) and a floor area of 1.9m sq ft (177,000 sqm), the opening of “Europe’s largest urban shopping centre” would be a noteworthy occasion at any time.

As it is, the mall is the only major shopping centre to open in the UK this year. While most major new retail developments, such as Trinity Leeds or Sheffield’s Sevenstone, have been delayed as a result of the economic downturn, Westfield Stratford City has been driven by its unique status as the gateway to London’s Olympic Park.

The site intended for Sheffield's new John Lewis (18 Aug 2011)

For John Lewis, whose 260,000 sq ft store (with 155,000 sq ft of selling space) anchors Westfield Stratford City, this stalling of new shopping centre developments has put something of a brake on its plans for new full-line department stores. Stratford City is the first one to open since Cardiff’s two years ago, while there’s unlikely to be another one before Birmingham opens in 2014. New stores that should have been opening this year – such as those in Sheffield and Portsmouth – are still several years off, assuming they happen at all.

Sheffield's existing John Lewis in Barker's Pool (18 Aug 2011)

John Lewis’s response to the development hold-ups has been to introduce new, smaller formats that will work in a wider range of locations – such as the ‘At Home’ concept that I blogged about previously – as well as continuing to invest in upgrading its existing store estate. While in the Midlands and South over the last few weeks, I was able to take a look at some of what John Lewis is up to.

John Lewis Reading's Broad Street frontage (19 Aug 2011)

Down in Berkshire, John Lewis Reading is one of the chain’s longest established stores, and is currently benefiting from a £19m makeover. Occupying a prime spot in Broad Street, the town’s main shopping thoroughfare, the store was extended in 1985 but traces its origins, as Heelas, back to 1855. The John Lewis Partnership acquired the shop in 1953, though the John Lewis fascia was only adopted in 2001.

When I visited last month, work on the second phase of the comprehensive two-stage revamp was well underway. New features of the store include a recently opened new-concept technology department, where modern interior finishes and computers on long tables create a more hands-on, Apple Store-style experience than has usually been the case at John Lewis.

John Lewis at Home, Swindon (11 Sep 2011)

Forty miles or so down the M4, the £7m John Lewis at Home in Swindon represents a relatively quick and cheap way for the retailer to circumvent development delays, and to plug the gap in coverage between its existing department stores in Reading and Bristol.

At first glance, the store’s location on the slightly dowdy Mannington Retail Park – close to an existing Carpetright, Allied Carpets and a closed-down Matalan Clearance shop – doesn’t seem especially promising, and the smaller lettable units (currently empty) that form part of the new John Lewis block bring to mind the never-occupied stores adjoining Gateshead’s ill-fated M&S Lifestore/ILVA.

Fortunately, if the busyness of the store last Sunday afternoon is anything to go by, Swindon’s John Lewis should enjoy a much more positive future. At 39,000 sq ft of selling space, the store is barely a quarter of the size of the Stratford City shop, but its range of furniture, homewares, electricals and technology, spread over two floors, seemed to compare favourably with that offered by my local JL department store in Newcastle. Prominent terminals allow customers to browse and order from the wider John Lewis range, including categories like fashion, beauty and nursery that are missing from the ‘at Home’ format.

The store itself is bright and easy to navigate, and the John Lewis Partners that I encountered were friendly and keen to engage – a positive sign as the company continues to expand so rapidly. In fact, the only slight disappointment was the rather small café, which feels more like a Waitrose instore coffee shop than the more extensive restaurant offer normally found in John Lewis department stores.

John Lewis at Home, Tamworth (3 Sep 2011)

Café quibble aside, this all bodes well for the sixth John Lewis at Home store, on Tamworth’s Ventura Retail Park, which is due to open on 12 October (following the fifth, in Chester, on 28 September). Still only a steel frame when I was there in June, the store had gained its cladding, glazing and signage by the time I returned ten days ago.

Tamworth's John Lewis dominates the view from the nearby Asda (3 Sep 2011)

Though similar in size to the Swindon store, the Tamworth shop’s location – on the UK’s tenth biggest retail park by expenditure (according to CACI Retail Footprint data), and the town’s main access road to the A5 – is much better. Where Swindon’s John Lewis needs to work as a destination in its own right – which it seems to be doing – the Tamworth store dominates the view from all over the retail park, and is likely to benefit from much more passing trade as shoppers head to the nearby Sainsbury’s, Asda, M&S or multitude of other big-name stores.

Finally, one site that was supposed to house a John Lewis at Home store – but now isn’t, quite – is the former home of Debenhams in Exeter’s Sidwell Street.

Traces of the 'Debenhams' lettering are still visible (6 Sep 2011)

Nearly a year ago, John Lewis announced plans to invest £8.5m in its first town centre ‘at Home’ store, bringing back into use the landmark 1960s tower block that Debenhams vacated, in 2007, upon the opening of its new store at the nearby Princesshay development.

New Debenhams at Princesshay, Exeter (6 Sep 2011)

Instead, the company announced in July that the Exeter shop would be the first of a new ‘flexible department store concept’, occuping between 65,000 and 100,000 sq ft – larger than at ‘at Home’ store, but not as big as a traditional John Lewis department store. The range, however, will cover all John Lewis’s categories, offering “an edited collection of products across fashion, home and electronics, in an inspiring and contemporary setting”, complemented by the chain’s online operation and the ability to order items not held instore.

Work underway at John Lewis Exeter (6 Sep 2011)

The Exeter store has a planned opening date of autumn 2012, and work appeared to be well advanced when I visited last week. A major part of the scheme involves raising the single-storey entrance pavilion to the height of the adjoining four-storey slab, creating a prominent glazed frontage to the corner of Sidwell Street and Paris Street.

The existing building, it has to be said, is not Exeter’s prettiest, but there’s no disputing the way it dominates the city’s skyline and the view along the main High Street. Fortunately, 3D renders of the enlarged store show a more comprehensive revamp of the building’s exterior than had previously been planned.

I’m not clear how Debenhams feels about a major competitor opening up in its former premises, particularly as both Princesshay and the John Lewis site are owned by Land Securities. The argument, however, would be that John Lewis’s arrival will provide a significant boost to retail in Exeter as a whole, drawing in shoppers who would previously have had to travel to the JL store at Bristol’s Cribbs Causeway.

John Lewis Bristol (18 May 2010). Photograph by Mark Leaver

CACI currently ranks Plymouth (at #26 in the UK, with annual expenditure of £760m) as the South West’s second biggest retail centre after Bristol, just ahead of Exeter (at #30 with £710m), but I’d be surprised if the benefits from John Lewis don’t lift Exeter above its Devon rival.

With John Lewis having “identified at least ten locations across the UK which could support these bespoke department stores”, and further expansion planned for the ‘at Home’ format, new John Lewis stores look likely to pop up all over the country in the next few years – helping the chain to reach more of those customers who, it believes, would like to be able to access a John Lewis shop.

The challenge, however, will be ensuring that rapid expansion doesn’t compromise the high standards of training and customer service for which John Lewis is rightly renowned; and that increasing ubiquity doesn’t undermine the very cachet that has made John Lewis so popular for so long.

Interior of Asda Supermarket, Gateshead (8 Aug 2011)

While some communities on Tyneside – among them North Shields and Wallsend – still have to wait a little longer for their Netto stores to be turned into Asdas, the process of converting 147 ex-Netto sites into Asda Supermarkets is continuing apace. Stores in Westerhope, Lemington and Gateshead are among those that have been transformed in the last couple of months.

Following on from my ‘undercover’ visits to ex-Netto UGO stores on Teesside and an ex-Netto Morrisons in Tamworth – all among the 47 stores that Asda had to divest for competition reasons – Asda invited me, and my camera, to check out one of the stores that it’s kept and converted over to its own fascia: the shop at Old Fold Road, a mile or so from the centre of Gateshead, which serves the recently built St James’ Village housing development as well as more established, working-class communities in the Felling and Sunderland Road areas of the town.

Asda Supermarket, Gateshead (8 Aug 2011)

The focus of this first blog post is the store’s transformation from Netto to Asda, looking mainly at the revamped shop’s layout, ranges, and look and feel.

As well as letting me look around, Asda also challenged me to carry out a full weekly shop in the store and to test the much publicised Asda Price Guarantee: the company’s pledge to be “10% cheaper on your comparable grocery shopping” compared to Tesco, Morrisons, Sainsbury’s or Waitrose. I’ll blog about my shopping trip – and reveal whether it was indeed cheaper – in a second post to follow soon.

Asda Supermarket, Gateshead (8 Aug 2011)

...and in its former guise as Netto (28 May 2010)

So, what is the store like? Externally, as you might expect, it’s little changed – just like the ex-Netto Morrisons and UGO stores that I visited before. In this case, the Netto signage has been replaced by the new ‘Asda Supermarket’ brand – signalling the store as a smaller-than-usual Asda – while the bright yellow window vinyls have been replaced by similar ones in pale yellowy-green.

The store also retains the slightly unwieldy separate entrance and exit lobbies that were so beloved of Netto stores, and that got me similarly confused in Eston.

Asda Supermarket, Gateshead (8 Aug 2011)

However, once you enter the store the extent of the interior transformation becomes clear. The entire shop was gutted and refitted in the impressively short two-and-a-half weeks betwen Netto closing and Asda opening, and it does now feel like an entirely new store.

Interior of Asda Supermarket, Gateshead (8 Aug 2011)

Configuring the space to accommodate the sheer increase in SKUs – from Netto’s 1,800 product lines to around 10,000 now – would always have made the shop look different. However, Asda’s investment in new shelving, floors, ceilings and wall finishes replaces the slightly dowdy Netto shopfit with a feel that is bright, clean and modern.

Interior of Asda Supermarket, Gateshead (8 Aug 2011)

Though the deep red walls bring to mind the latest Wilkinson storefit, they (and the matching signage) do work well in bringing some warmth and colour to what could otherwise have felt like a crisp but slightly sterile interior.

Red wall finish and signage, Asda Supermarket, Gateshead (8 Aug 2011)

Inside the store, the logical layout of the entrance area is evidently designed to assist shoppers who are just popping in for one or two items. Newspapers and bestselling magazines are on the left as you go in, followed by a ’Food to Go’ section featuring sandwiches, drinks and snacks.

Newspapers, Asda Supermarket, Gateshead (8 Aug 2011)

'Food to Go' section, Asda Supermarket, Gateshead (8 Aug 2011)

On the right are flowers, four self-service checkouts, three regular checkouts, and the kiosk beyond.

Checkouts, Asda Supermarket, Gateshead (8 Aug 2011)

Given the store’s compact size, the kiosk has to perform multiple functions, serving as the customer service desk as well as housing the usual cigarette display and National Lottery terminals. Crucially, it’s also the ‘Click and Collect’ point – a key part of Asda’s strategy to push its non-food offer and build multichannel traffic.

Less logically, spirits are also located at the kiosk – presumably for security as much as convenience purchasing – though their absence from the main wine and beer aisle does make it awkward to buy spirits as part of a full shop.

Kiosk, Asda Supermarket, Gateshead (8 Aug 2011)

Entering the main body of the shop, customers are faced with what seems to be a relatively compact fruit and veg section relative to the ex-Netto UGO and Morrisons stores that I visited.

Fruit and veg section, Asda Supermarket, Gateshead (8 Aug 2011)

However, the multi-tiered shelving units allow a deceptively wide range of fruit and veg products to be fitted into the space, as well as helping to create a colourful and eyecatching display.

Fruit and veg section, Asda Supermarket, Gateshead (8 Aug 2011)

In fruit and veg, as throughout the store, value messages are key – Asda, for obvious reasons, is clearly keen to reassure former Netto customers that the prices on everyday items haven’t suddenly gone up.

Fruit and veg section, Asda Supermarket, Gateshead (8 Aug 2011)

Perhaps trying to tap into the current success of single-price retailers like Poundland, banners and shelf-edge labels highlight items costing £1, while hanging arrow signs draw attention to specific offers or ‘SuperPrices’ more generally.

'SuperPrices' sign at Asda Supermarket, Gateshead (8 Aug 2011)

Apart from fruit and veg, the store’s other major focus of both fresh products and visual theatre is the instore bakery, with an adjacent hot chicken counter.

Instore bakery, Asda Supermarket, Gateshead (8 Aug 2011)

Instore bakery, Asda Supermarket, Gateshead (8 Aug 2011)

Wisely, the bakery is placed in a traditional back-corner location rather than near the entrance as it is in Tamworth’s ex-Netto Morrisons, ensuring that there’s plenty of room both to circulate and to admire the attractive display.

Instore bakery, Asda Supermarket, Gateshead (8 Aug 2011)

On the downside, the store does lack a meat and fish counter, like the one Morrisons has squeezed into the old Netto in Tamworth; for me personally, as a fresh fish fan, that would limit how often I’d use this particular store for my full weekly shop. To be fair, however, I’m not necessarily the core demographic that this particular shop is catering for, and I’m sure Asda has done its homework in tailoring the store’s offer towards the everyday needs of local shoppers.

Oils and bread aisle, Asda Supermarket, Gateshead (8 Aug 2011)

The heart of the store is its aisles of ambient products, and it’s here – in categories such as oils and bread – that the increase in both branded and own-label SKUs is really noticable.

The upcoming blog post about my Asda shop will talk in more detail about how far I was able to get all the items on my shopping list. Generally speaking, though, it’s hard not to be impressed by how much Asda has squeezed into the space, including quite a few categories that never used to be represented in Netto.

Magazines and greetings cards, Asda Supermarket, Gateshead (8 Aug 2011)

I spotted, for example, a pretty extensive display of magazines – complementing the newspapers and bestselling magazine titles by the door – as well as a decent range of reasonably priced greetings cards.

Babywear aisle, Asda Supermarket, Gateshead (8 Aug 2011)

The overall extent of the non-food range is also surprisingly broad given the store’s limited space. It includes stationery, babywear and underwear, as well as books and entertainment, though the latter two did have quite a lot of gaps at the time of my Monday morning visit.

Books aisle, Asda Supermarket, Gateshead (8 Aug 2011)

I was also interested to spot a display of non-food ‘SuperBuys’, featuring an eclectic range of luggage sets, scooters and toasters. The deals – and the deliberately ‘home-made’ look of the signage – are obviously a nod towards the store’s Netto heritage.

However, most of the featured items looked like the same Asda-branded products that you’d come across in a larger Asda store, meaning that the SuperBuys lacked some of the sheer randomness and element of fun that make the hard discounters’ non-food deals so popular.

Non-food 'SuperBuys', Asda Supermarket, Gateshead (8 Aug 2011)

Nearing the end of my circuit, the store conforms to supermarket layout norms by locating the frozen foods and alcohol furthest from the entrance. Unsurprisingly, the frozen section eschews Netto-style chest freezers in favour of upright ones – similar to those seen in Eldon Square’s Waitrose and other compact supermarkets – to ensure that the maximum number of products can be fitted within the space.

Frozen aisle, Asda Supermarket, Gateshead (8 Aug 2011)

Frozen aisle, Asda Supermarket, Gateshead (8 Aug 2011)

Though lacking the aforementioned spirits, the alcohol section is also impressive in its range, and compares favourably with the old Netto offer – including, I was pleased to see, a cabinet of chilled beers and wines. Selling drinks that people can consume straight away seems like an an obvious move, and more often than not the major grocers’ convenience stores do it. However, I’m always surprised at how many larger supermarkets don’t have a chilled drinks cabinet, including M&S – surely the ultimate impulse purchase grocer, and the place where you stock up on your way to dinner parties.

Beers and wines, Asda Supermarket, Gateshead (8 Aug 2011)

To put things in context, it’s worth flagging up that I’m not usually an Asda shopper, partly because the store nearest to me – at Metrocentre – is overwhelmingly huge, full of children, and a nightmare to drive to. When I do shop there, it’s more often than not to check out the George clothing or other non-food ranges rather than to do a full shop – for which I prefer to go to Waitrose or Morrisons. Asda might well be cheap – more of which in my next post, of course – but at the vast and busy Metrocentre store you do pay for it in increased stress levels.

Having said all that, it’s hard not to be impressed with the new Asda Supermarket at Old Fold Road. The transformation from Netto is remarkable, and Asda’s investment in the store – and, by extension, the local community – is admirable. The attractive store environment, improved ranges and lovely staff – including ex-Netto colleagues supplemented with new recruits – are all big pluses, as is not having to walk around a huge store to find everything that you want.

'Asda in your Community' display, Asda Supermarket, Gateshead (8 Aug 2011)

Living two-and-a-half miles away, it’s fair to say I probably wouldn’t go back to this particular store on a regular basis. However, if I lived in the area, I’d certainly have no qualms about using the store for either convenience purchases or the bulk of my weekly shop (though preferably on a weekday, when I took my photos, rather than the more hectic Saturday afternoon when I carried out my actual shop).

Interior of Asda Supermarket, Gateshead (8 Aug 2011)

Last week, Retail Week reported that Asda had seen sales uplifts of 50% in its converted Netto stores, and that there were now plans to open 250 more smaller Asda Supermarkets instead of the 100 that had been originally envisaged. It’s not hard to see why sales are buoyant, given the improvement in the shopping environment and offer; indeed, staff at Old Fold Road told me that while former Netto shoppers were still happily coming in, they were also seeing plenty of new people who had never set foot in the store while it was Netto.

In recent history, big supermarket takeovers – be it Somerfield buying Kwik Save, Morrisons snapping up Safeway, or the Co-op buying Somerfield – have rarely gone to plan, typically resulting in disgruntled customers and haemorrhaging of combined market share. However, if Asda can maintain the early momentum across its converted estate – keeping existing Netto shoppers happy while simultaneously attracting new customers from its rivals – this might finally be a retail takeover that delivers on its promise.

Promotion for Tamworth's new Morrisons (17 Jun 2011)

With a visit to an ex-Netto UGO in the bag, and one to an ex-Netto Asda in the offing, it seemed only fair to check out an ex-Netto Morrisons while I was in Tamworth a couple of weeks ago.

As I explained when the news was announced back in January, Tamworth’s Netto is one of 16 initially divested by Asda to Morrisons, with another two – in Salford and Dunstable – added since. The Haldane Retail Group has acquired 20 sites, which it has now converted to its UGO fascia, while Iceland and the Co-op have each bought three. This means that of the 47 Netto sites that overlapped with existing Asda stores, only three remain to be sold in order for Asda to meet its obligations to the OFT.

New Morrisons, Tamworth (17 Jun 2011)

Former Netto, Tamworth, before conversion to Morrisons (4 Apr 2011)

Tamworth’s new Morrisons was built as a Kwik Save in the 1990s, briefly became a Somerfield, reverted back to a Kwik Save fascia, stood empty for a year, and then reopened as Netto less than three years ago. From the outside, the store is little changed from its previous incarnations, though the ‘Tasty Bread’ caption and imagery next to the entrance gives a flavour of what has changed inside. Meanwhile, prominent signs, banners and billboards ensure that the store is highly visible to passing motorists.

As you enter the shop, an instore bakery occupies the space immediately on the right. The location was presumably dictated by the building’s layout and compact size, but it did mean that there was some congestion as shoppers entering the store with trollies tried to get past customers browsing the bread and cakes. At the bottom of the store, there are also small but attractively presented meat and fish counters. So, not the full ‘Market Street’ offer, clearly, but a significant step up from what Netto used to offer in the same space.

There's no missing Tamworth's new Morrisons (17 Jun 2011)

Indeed, the major impression of this Morrisons store is just how much bigger it feels than when it was trading as Netto. It’s perhaps only half or two-thirds of the size of a typical converted Safeway, yet it’s clear that this is a shop where people can do – and are doing – a full weekly shop. The store was doing a decent business when I visited on a Friday lunchtime, with plenty of cars in the car park as well as shoppers arriving and departing on foot.

It’s the first time for a couple of decades – when Sainsbury’s left Ankerside to move out of town – that the Tamworth Co-op supermarket in Church Street has had any significant town centre competition, and it will be interesting to see where Morrisons steals its trade from: the in-town Co-op, Farmfoods or Iceland; the out-of-town Asda or Sainsbury’s; or the much larger, purpose-built Morrisons a couple of miles away in Wilnecote.

Paying for my goods at the till, I was pleased to see that the staff were all smiling, happy and talkative – always an encouraging sign. Indeed, I ended up having some banter with the guy at my till when he started to question whether I was old enough to buy the bottle of wine that was in my basket. This 37-year-old was quite content for the checkout guy to guess that I was 23 – young enough for me to feel flattered, but old enough to actually be allowed to buy the wine.

Overall then, my impressions of this compact Morrisons store were good. It was clean and well stocked, and shows that Morrisons can work effectively in a smaller than usual format. On the other hand, by not having all the instore features – most notably a full ‘Market Street’ – that normally make a Morrisons so distinctive, I couldn’t help feeling that the store lacked just a little of the usual Morrisons ‘personality’. As Morrisons rolls out more smaller stores – as well as its new M Local convenience format – perhaps it can do a bit more to make sure that these Morrisons really feel like a Morrisons.

Netto, Old Fold Road, Gateshead (28 May 2010)

Less than six months after the carve-up of the Netto estate was confirmed, the Danish supermarket fascia is well on its way to disappearing from the UK retail landscape.

Haldanes – currently distracted by the collapse of its eponymous chain – was the first to complete conversion of its 20 acquired stores, with all now trading as UGO. Meanwhile, Iceland and Morrisons are in the midst of revamping the Netto sites that they acquired, with some stores – such as the new Morrisons in Tamworth, which I hope to visit later this week – already trading.

Former Netto, Tamworth, before conversion to Morrisons (4 Apr 2011)

Asda itself, of course, has the biggest job, with 147 ex-Netto stores set to be switched over to its new Asda Supermarkets fascia. The first conversions – including Stainforth, below – opened last month, and I’m told by Asda’s PR people that the rest will be finished by November – an impressive rate of more than five conversions a week.

Here on Tyneside, three stores – in Westerhope (Stamfordham Road), Lemington (Northumberland Road) and Gateshead (Old Fold Road) – closed their doors as Netto last Saturday (11 June), and are each set to reopen as Asda Supermarkets on Monday 27 and Tuesday 28 June following a £500,000 refit. For stats buffs, that’s around five times the reported cost of converting a Netto to a UGO.

Early conversion of an ex-Netto in Stainforth, South Yorkshire

However, where Haldanes’ UGO stores are very much an adaptation of the existing Netto fitout, Asda’s revamps are more extensive, involving stripping the stores back to their shell.

In terms of what the converted stores will offer the customer, Asda’s PR – like UGO’s – flags up the key themes of low prices, improved ranging and greater convenience.

On price, Asda’s main headline is that “all newly converted Netto stores will charge the same low price as every other Asda in the UK” – a simple, effective and powerful message that is likely to resonate with shoppers. It should also avoid scaring off loyal Netto customers with prices that are too high, a potential problem that fellow blogger Steve Dresser and Soult’s Retail View readers have highlighted in relation to UGO.

UGO (former Netto) store, Hartlepool (4 May 2011)

On range, Asda again echoes UGO in pledging that customers will be able to “complete a full weekly shop”, with each of the new stores featuring the the full breadth of Asda’s own-label food ranges, including Smart Price, Chosen By You, Extra Special, Good For You, Free From and Organics. However, the increase in product lines (SKUs) from 1,800 to 10,000 rather puts UGO’s 3,000 (or even the now-defunct Haldanes’ 7,000) in the shade.

Finally, in terms of convenience, Asda Supermarkets’ longer opening hours, extra services (PayPoint, National Lottery, cash machines), and the provision of a collection service for online orders should all go some way to increasing footfall and basket size from Netto levels.

Former Somerfield, Adelaide Centre, Benwell (28 May 2010)

Before the new Tyneside Asda stores open in a couple of weeks’ time, I should probably try and check out the recently opened Asda Supermarket in Benwell’s Adelaide Centre. This store opened on 19 May, but is a former Somerfield site rather than an ex-Netto.

Given this acquisition, I was curious about the implications for the Netto at Mill Lane, less than a mile away, which is among the 147 stores that Asda is supposed to be keeping. Tucked down a side street and housed in a corrugated shed, this is hardly the most glamorous of Netto sites, yet it provides an important service to a community that otherwise lacks much in the way of affordable grocery store provision.

I’m assured, however, that the Mill Lane Netto will still be converted to an Asda Supermarket in the coming months, though as yet there’s no confirmed date for when that changeover will take place. I will, naturally, give an update as soon as I receive further news.

In the meantime, do feel free to share your experiences of visiting any newly opened Asda Supermarkets. Whether you’re an ex-Netto shopper or someone who’s been attracted from elsewhere, I – and your fellow Soult’s Retail View readers – will be keen to hear your reactions.

John Lewis logo

No, don’t choke on your cornflakes… that’s a serious question.

My interest was piqued last month when the Tamworth Herald ran a story under the headline ”Striking design’ of unit to be built next to Herald offices’, on the town’s ever-growing Ventura Retail Park.

In it, the piece gave a few more details about what the new unit would be like, describing it as “similar in size to [Ventura's] Marks and Spencer, ASDA and Sainsbury’s” and “one of the more dominant outlets on the retail park.” It added that “while no details of which retailer will move into the building have been revealed, the building’s ‘striking’ design was unveiled last month.”

M&S at Ventura Park, Tamworth (24 Dec 2009)

This immediately got me thinking. After all, there aren’t many retailers, besides John Lewis and Best Buy, who are currently opening massive, ‘strikingly’ designed stores on retail parks. B&Q was another possibility, but the same edition of the Herald had revealed that the DIY retailer was already going to be opening a new store behind Sainsbury’s, at nearby Cardinal Point, alongside a new Next and a branch of Maplin.

Publicly available planning applications are often a good source of extra information, but it’s taken me until now to check out the application for the development in question (0648/2010) – which was submitted at the end of November and approved in January. It seems that a development of the size proposed was actually already approved for this site in 2008, so the application was for a ‘variation of conditions’, with revised plans and elevations, rather than an entirely new proposal.

I was curious to see the ‘striking’ design of the building, so took a look at the elevation drawings attached to the application. Here’s a screenshot (click image to view in larger size):

Screenshot of elevation drawings

Hmmm… a large building with lots of double-height glazing, grey cladding and white lettering. Where have I seen that before? Let’s do a Google Image Search for ‘John Lewis at Home’… (again, click to see it a larger size)

Google Image search for 'John Lewis at Home' (16 Feb 2011)

What do you reckon? In the event that the new store isn’t going to be John Lewis, it’s certainly doing its very best to resemble one.

The idea of ‘John Lewis Tamworth’ may sound far-fetched to begin with – after all, the town is not known for attracting more upmarket retailers, and has a town centre that has become increasingly value-focused. However, John Lewis’s new ‘at Home’ format makes the prospect quite plausible.

Largely based on out-of-town retail parks, four such stores have opened to date – in Poole, Croydon, Swindon and Tunbridge Wells – with two more planned for Exeter (on a city centre site that used to be Debenhams) and Chester. Each John Lewis at Home offers the retailer’s full range of  furniture, furnishing accessories, electricals and home technology, though items from other departments – including fashion, beauty and nursery – can be ordered instore for home delivery or next-day collection.

If John Lewis is looking to plug the gap between its Solihull, Leicester and Nottingham stores, Tamworth’s sprawling and bustling Ventura Retail Park – which attracts visitors from all across the Midlands thanks to its strong offer and easy connections to the motorway network – begins to make good sense as a location.

Of course, two other important debates – what the continued expansion of Ventura Retail Park means for local traffic congestion and for Tamworth town centre – must not be neglected, and key to this is making it easier for Ventura visitors to access the town centre’s attractions.

Still, if John Lewis were to open in Tamworth, that would be rather a fantastic coup, wouldn’t it?

Morrisons store

The Netto store in my old hometown of Tamworth is one of 16 sites that Morrisons is set to acquire following Asda’s purchase of the Netto UK business. The stores are among 47 that the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) has required Asda to sell to competitors, to avoid a lessening of consumer choice in those areas where Asda and Netto currently compete with one another.

With Asda already having a vast store at the nearby Ventura Retail Park, it was always likely that Tamworth’s Netto would be one of those that it would have to dispose of. However, with Sainsbury’s, Aldi, M&S, Iceland, Farmfoods and Tamworth Co-op also all currently represented in either the town centre or at Ventura, there was a fairly limited pool of potential purchasers.

Morrisons already has a Tamworth superstore in Marlborough Way, Wilnecote – a couple of miles from the centre of town – but its purchase of the Netto site should give a boost to the town centre’s retail offer by providing a much wider range of goods than Netto currently offers.

Gungate Precinct with Kwik Save store in the early 1990s

The purchase by Morrisons is the latest development in a fairly turbulent history for the Upper Gungate supermarket site, which was originally built as a Kwik Save in the 1990s. For a time, it was open concurrently with the previous, smaller Kwik Save in the Gungate Precinct – a unit that had housed Tesco and Victor Value back in the ’70s and ’80s. However, that Kwik Save store eventually closed, and was occupied by Pound Plus until the precinct’s demolition last year.

Following Somerfield’s disastrous 1998 purchase of Kwik Save, the Upper Gungate Kwik Save briefly became a Somerfield, before being turned back into a Kwik Save again. The store then closed down following Kwik Save’s collapse in 2007, standing empty for a year before being reopened as a Netto in August 2008.

Assuming that Asda’s acquisition of Netto receives final approval by the OFT, the handover of Morrisons’ stores is expected to commence on a phased basis in March, with conversion to the Morrisons format taking three months. On this basis, Morrisons should be trading from the site sometime in summer 2011.

Given Morrisons’ retail pedigree, there’s every chance that the store’s latest incarnation will be more long-lived than its increasingly fleeting predecessors.

Former Woolworths (now Sports Direct), Stafford (30 Sep 2010)

The more former Woolworths stores I blog about, the more predictable it gets that I’ll be mentioning now-familiar discount names such as B&M Bargains, Home Bargains, Poundland or Sports Direct. 

Previously in Staffordshire, I’ve reported on the new occupants of Tamworth’s old Woolworths stores in the town centre (now Home Bargains) and at Ventura Park, and twice visited the old Woolies in Burton’s Cooper’s Square mall – still empty when I returned last month.  

Old Market Hall, Rugeley (30 Sep 2010)

Back in September I was able to mop up a few more old Woolworths stores in Staffordshire, kicking off with the historic market town of Rugeley. Despite spending my childhood in Tamworth, barely 15 miles away, I’d never paid a proper visit to Rugeley before. Though the dreary bus station barely leaves a good initial impression, Rugeley’s compact town centre is quite pleasant, with more interesting buildings – including the gorgeous old Market Hall – than you might expect. 

Former Woolworths (now Peacocks), Rugeley (30 Sep 2010)

Rugeley’s old Woolworths in Lower Brook Street (store #586) – pictured here in its former guise - is right at the heart of the town centre, and has been occupied by the fashion retailer Peacocks since early last year. 

Up the road, shopping in the county town of Stafford is centred around the attractive, pedestrianised Gaolgate Street, where I was pleased to see a Co-op department store still going strong. 

Co-op department store, Stafford (30 Sep 2010)

Stafford’s Co-op is owned by the Midlands Co-operative Society, which is now the second largest retail Co-op in the country (after the Co-operative Group), and has maintained a significant non-food operation at the same time as other co-ops have closed down all their department stores. 

The Stafford store’s viability is surely helped by its prominent location, a ‘Stafford Department Store’ brand that cannily emphasises its localness (seemingly a Midland’s Co-op trait, as I noted previously that the Coalville store adopts a similar approach), and the absence of any department store competition in the town. 

Though the nearby indoor mall – the Guildhall Shopping Centre – hosts more than 40 shops, I was struck by its curious lack of a major anchor store, the nearest thing being the large but oddly laid-out JJB store on the first floor. I know Debenhams is perhaps becoming too ubiquitous across the UK, but the Guildhall did feel to me like a shopping centre missing a Debenhams. 

Former Woolworths (now Sports Direct), Stafford (30 Sep 2010)

At the other end of the town, the open-air Gaolgate Place shopping precinct is very much based around a discount offer, and this is where Stafford’s former Woolworths (store #320) can be found. Sports Direct is the new occupant, though only on a short lease judging from the seemingly temporary signs stuck over the original Woolworths ones.

Market Place, Cannock (30 Sep 2010)

The nearby town of Cannock was another place that I’d never visited before. Though the part-covered Cannock Shopping Centre lacks character, I liked the busy and appealing Market Place, which had the feel of being the town’s real heart.

Former Woolworths (now Poundland), Cannock (30 Sep 2010)

Facing the Market Place, Cannock’s old Woolies (store #609) is yet another site that has been picked up by Poundland. As in Scarborough, it seems that not everyone was happy about Poundland taking over one of the town’s largest units, though the one million sales registered in the shop’s first three months would seem to tell a different story.

Rear of former Woolworths (now Poundland), Cannock (30 Sep 2010)

I previously mentioned Lichfield when the URL for Newcastle’s Monument Mall shopping centre was erroneously pointing at the site for Lichfield’s Three Spires. I’ve been to Lichfield many times before, and its very attractive city centre – packed with quaint streets and lovely buildings – always makes for an enjoyable visit.

Former Woolworths (now B&M Bargains), Lichfield (30 Sep 2010)

Unfortunately, Lichfield’s old Woolworths store (#376) is not one of the city centre’s most attractive buildings, but the arrival of B&M Bargains in 2009 at least ensured that it wasn’t empty for very long.

Rear of former Woolworths (now B&M Bargains), Lichfield (19 Mar 2010)

The more modern Three Spires shopping centre houses Lichfield’s only department store, TJ Hughes, though the city is set to gain a Debenhams if the delayed Friarsgate development ever gets off the ground. The latest design changes to the £100m scheme – reflecting the “changing market conditions” – are set to go on show to the public later this month, which perhaps bodes well for work finally getting underway before the current expiration of the planning consent in December next year.

In the coming months, any movement on mothballed retailed schemes such as Friarsgate will certainly be an important indicator of whether – and how quickly – the economy and the commercial property market is recovering after its last couple of years in the doldrums.

Former Woolworths (now Home Bargains), Berwick-upon-Tweed (14 Aug 2010)

Ever since I paid a visit to the old out-of-town Woolies in Stockton back in July, Berwick-upon-Tweed (store #232) has been the only one of the 33 North East Woolworths stores missing from my collection of photographs.

The other 32 shops that shut down following Woolies’ collapse have all been featured in this blog already. It won’t surprise you, therefore, to discover that I visited Berwick in August, with a view to capturing that final elusive shot. Not that it’s really the end, of course – there are still plenty more of the 807 stores nationwide to visit (though only when I’m passing them anyway), as well as quite a few of the North East stores that had already closed down long before the Woolworths name disappeared from the high street in 2009.

Marygate, Berwick-upon-Tweed (14 Aug 2010)

Dominated by the spired Town Hall, there’s no doubt that Berwick’s main thoroughfare of Marygate is a truly impressive and memorable urban space, despite the best efforts of traffic and market stalls to clutter it up.

It’s fitting, therefore, that the town’s imposing old Woolies building, completed in March 1937, should occupy a prominent spot in Marygate. Architecturally, the property perhaps most resembles a stretched version of the old Woolworths in Gosforth (#716), which was built about a year later.

Former Woolworths (now Home Bargains), Berwick-upon-Tweed (14 Aug 2010)

Taken over by Home Bargains following Woolworths’ collapse, the store features the same toned down burgundy and grey fascia that I noted previously at the Tamworth and Prestatyn Home Bargains branches – both themselves former Woolies sites. Indeed, the colour scheme isn’t so far away from the famous carmine red that defined every Woolies’ fascia well into the twentieth century, as shown in the 1930s postcard below. The image, interestingly, also suggests that the stone façade was at one time painted white.

1930s postcard showing the Woolworths store in Berwick

However, Woolworths’ presence in Berwick predates the current building, with the first Woolies store in the town opening a decade earlier, on 28 August 1926. This was apparently in Marygate too, though I’m yet to work out exactly where it was, or whether the building that it occupied still exists.

Marygate before the current Woolworths building

The earlier photo above, featured in this interesting gallery of historic images of Berwick, was clearly taken before the present Woolworths building was constructed – from what I can make out, it must have replaced the properties that you can see between the statue and the left-hand edge of the photo. However, it’s impossible to make out whether the original Woolies is there among the huddle of shops lining the street. The prominent statue, incidentally, is conspicuous by its absence in my present-day shots, or, indeed, in the 1930s postcard. Perhaps someone from Berwick can shed light on what happened to it?

Former Woolworths, Coalville (24 Aug 2010)

Regular readers of Soult’s Retail View will know that I have something of a penchant for visiting lots of old Woolworths stores in a short time, usually – for better or worse – by bus.

Back in August, I took the opportunity to undertake another such jaunt, bringing in 11 former Woolies sites in Staffordshire, Warwickshire, Leicestershire and Derbyshire.

Of those, four are sites that Woolies occupied, and vacated, way before its collapse into administration. Of the other seven, it’s notable that only one showed no sign of being taken over by another retailer.

Side of former Woolworths, Tamworth (24 Aug 2010)

My journey started in Tamworth, where the old Woolworths store (#508) – now Home Bargains – has featured in this blog several times before. Given that the shop’s frontage was obscured, inevitably, by tatty market stalls, I thought I’d vary things a little by taking a shot of the store from the side.

Looking down College Lane towards George Street, the image shows the corner site where Tamworth’s Woolies began, with the company acquiring the premises of William Facey’s furniture store in 1933. It was only in 1968-70 that the property took the form that we see today, the original store redeveloped along with adjoining properties that Woolworths had acquired.

Former Woolworths, Atherstone (24 Aug 2010)

Next stop was the attractive Warwickshire market town of Atherstone, where the Woolworths store in Long Street closed down many years before the chain’s eventual collapse. The store’s number in the Woolies pecking order (#661) suggests that it opened in 1936, and the design certainly fits with that period. Now occupied by Atherstone Carpets, the building is still completely recognisable as an old Woolies, even if the later addition of a pitched roof has rather unbalanced its architectural quality. Note the building’s similarity, for example, to that of the contemporaneous Alfreton store (#684).

Former Woolworths (now TJ Hughes), Nuneaton (24 Aug 2010)

A few miles down the road, the 24,000 sq ft former Woolies site in Nuneaton (#227) – facing Queens Road but also attached to the Ropewalk Shopping Centre – was in the process of being refurbished by TJ Hughes, ahead of its opening in October.

Original Woolworths (now Superdrug), Nuneaton (24 Aug 2010)

However, the town’s original Woolworths building is a little further down the street, facing the Market Square, and is now occupied by Superdrug. In fact, Nuneaton’s Woolies occupied that site for almost forty years, opening on 31 July 1926 before relocating to the new site on 5 June 1964. Incidentally, the imposing property with the gable next door – currently housing Eastex and Dash – also has some historical significance retail-wise, as the town’s original Boots store.

Former Woolworths (now B&M Bargains) Hinckley (24 Aug 2010)

No jaunt in search of old Woolies is complete without a store that has been taken over by B&M Bargains, and the Leicestershire town of Hinckley was able to oblige in this case. As is usual with the former Woolworths sites that B&M Bargains has taken over, the existing shopfront of the Castle Street store – in the distinctive 1960s Woolies style – has been retained. Though a Woolworths store had occupied that site since 1934 (store #542), the building itself has obviously undergone significant redevelopment over the years.

Former Woolworths, Haymarket, Leicester (24 Aug 2010)

By the time Woolworths collapsed, the chain had already exited Leicester city centre, having sold their Humberstone Gate / Haymarket site (#1141) – opened in 1986 – in 2006. That property, if I’ve identified it correctly, is now occupied in part by Currys and Peacocks.

Original Woolworths location (now Bhs), Leicester (24 Aug 2010)

However, the original Woolworths in Leicester city centre was around the corner in Gallowtree Gate. That store (#49) opened in June 1915, was redeveloped in 1965, and was sold to Bhs in the early 1980s.

Old postcard showing the same store prior to redevelopment

The store in that location has some personal significance, in that my maternal grandmother, Emmie Hunter (née Emmie Harley), worked there for six years from 1933 (aged 18) to 1939, when the store would have looked much as it does in the old postcard above. I understand that she worked as a shop assistant, in various departments, but particularly enjoyed working in the equivalent of today’s entertainment section – the sheet music counter.

Former Woolworths, Coalville (24 Aug 2010)

A few miles from Leicester, Coalville’s Woolies in Belvoir Road (#474) was still empty (and as far as I’m aware remains so), though a sign claimed that the premises were ‘under offer’. Purportedly covering over 24,000 sq ft, the property is evidently much larger than it appears from the frontage, and it will be interesting to see who the new occupant is, if and when they ever arrive. With the nearby Belvoir Shopping Centre apparently set for redevelopment^{[broken link removed]}, it’s always possible that the new tenant could be a relocation from there.

Former Woolworths (now Costa), Ashby-de-la-Zouch (24 Aug 2010)

A few miles away, Ashby-de-la-Zouch is quite like Atherstone in being a highly appealing market town where most of its shops are strung out along one long street. Unlike Atherstone, however, Ashby managed to hang on to its Woolies (#624) – opened in what looks like an existing building, in Market Street, in 1935 – until the end.

As old Woolworths premises go, Ashby’s is quite unusual in being taken over not by another retailer but by Costa, the coffee shop chain, which opened there earlier this year. Covering just 2,000 sq ft, however, the small size of the ground floor sales area rather limits the options.

Former Woolworths (now Alworths), Swadlincote (24 Aug 2010)

Over the border into Derbyshire, Swadlincote offered a sense of déjà vu with its prominent ‘Tamworth Co-op’ branded store. Further along the High Street, however, the old Woolies (#567) was being fitted out ready for Alworths to open up on 8 September. Rather like the store in Alfreton, the property is a slightly incongruous amalgamation of two separate buildings, the original purpose-built Woolies evidently having been extended at some point into the shop next door.

Former Woolworths (now Alworths), Swadlincote (24 Aug 2010)

As the shot above shows, work was well progressed, with all the shelving in place and me captured for posterity on the already-installed CCTV, but without any Alworths signage as yet. Though it was nearly 6pm by this time, a workman was still on site and told me that stocking and staff training was due to start on 25 August, the day after my visit. 

Swadlincote was intended to my last Woolies stop ahead of catching the train back from Burton upon Trent to Tamworth, having already photographed Burton’s Woolies in Coopers Square the last time I embarked upon a tour of the Midlands.

Rear of former Woolworths, Burton (24 Aug 2010)

As it happens, however, the bus from Swadlincote dropped me off outside the service entrance of the old Burton Woolworths (#147), where I was fascinated to spot a very old ‘Woolworth’ sign – in the singular, rather than the more usual plural. Officially, the retailer referred to itself as Woolworth (or F W Woolworth) for much of its lifetime, with the chain only being branded as Woolworths (in the plural) from the mid 1980s onwards. This means that the sign remaining at Burton probably dates from when the store first opened on that site, in 1982, taking over a unit that had previously been Sainsbury’s.

Just like the archaic WHSmith logo that I happened upon in Redcar, it’s an interesting example of a retailer rebranding but forgetting – or just not bothering – to update the logo ‘round the back’. However, it’s also the kind of unexpected retail detail that makes visits like this one rather fun.

Mall plan showing Peacocks (screenshot from 4 Aug 2010)

I was interested to find out a few days ago that the fashion retailer Peacocks will soon be opening a store in my old home town of Tamworth, taking a prime spot within the town centre’s Ankerside mall.

Given that jobs in the store have been being advertised since June, and with the store listed as ‘coming soon’ on Ankerside’s own website, it’s hardly entirely new news. However, it was the first my mother – who still lives in Tamworth – had heard about it when I quizzed her earlier this week.

Ankerside Shopping Centre, Tamworth (22 Dec 2008)

Peacocks opening up in Tamworth may not sound like a revelation, but new investment from a major retailer is really positive news for a town centre that has struggled to compete with the out-of-town Ventura Park complex down the road.

M&S at Ventura Park, Tamworth (24 Dec 2009)

Some retailers – including Currys, Comet, JJB Sports, Mothercare and WHSmith – long ago closed their town centre sites in favour of Ventura Park, while others, like M&S, Next, Blacks and TK Maxx, have chosen to open up on the retail park instead of in the town centre. Even those major names who are represented in the centre of Tamworth often have a Ventura Park store as well, such as Argos, Boots and (soon) New Look.

Home Bargains in Tamworth's former Woolworths (19 Mar 2010)

Part of the problem has been Tamworth town centre’s chronic shortage of large, modern retail units. I’ve always thought, for example, that Peacocks, Primark and Bhs would all do well in Tamworth if only they could find the space. However, the only large unit to have become available in recent years is the old Woolworths in George Street, eventually snapped up by Home Bargains.

Wilkinson store, Tamworth (24 Dec 2009)

Prior to that, the most significant new arrival was Wilkinson, in 1994. Moving back to the town after some years away, Wilko’s also had to be creative in finding space, carving out a new unit for itself in Market Street from a former Berni Inn (The Peel Arms) and the adjoining car park.

Even in the relatively modern Ankerside – opened in 1980 and extended in 1992 – only two of the 60 or so stores are really large units: Boots, which has occupied the same site since the centre opened; and the privately-owned Irish fashion retailer, Dunnes, which took over the site that originally housed Sainsbury’s. Most of the other units are very small by modern standards, keeping Tamworth well provided for with mobile phones and greetings cards, but little else.

To get over this problem, there have been several instances in the past where Ankerside has knocked units together to create larger, more attractive spaces. If I recall correctly, both New Look and Clinton Cards started off in single units, before expanding into the ones next door; similarly, the current Poundland site – previously MK One – was knocked together from two units in the 1990s to accommodate Mothercare.

The deserted Gungate Precinct awaits demolition (19 Mar 2010)

In due course, Henry Boot’s Tamworth Junction scheme, a planned £75m redevelopment of the town centre’s old Gungate Precinct site, should provide Tamworth with room for some large stores; indeed, the same developer’s success in signing up Next, Desire by Debenhams, Bhs and River Island for South Shields’ Waterloo Square scheme surely bodes well. However, it is still likely to be several years before Tamworth Junction reaches fruition.

Henry Boot's Waterloo Square retail scheme in South Shields (24 Jul 2010)

In the meantime, all Ankerside can really do is continue making the most of the space that it’s got, with the three units closest to Ankerside’s top George Street entrance (numbers 4 -7) being combined to form a more viable space for Peacocks.

All three of those shops have had a fairly heavy turnover of tenants over the years, especially recently:

• Unit 4-5 has had a few temporary uses since The Works closed down following the company’s administration in 2008; before that, I can remember it housing Rumbelows, Millets and, when the centre opened, a ladies’ fashion store. [UPDATE, 23 Aug 2010: I believe the fashion store was called Walter Hibbert.]
• Most recently, Unit 6 was briefly Baybeez^{[broken link removed]}, but before that had been Priceless Shoes, Gilesports, and a local bakers whose name escapes me – Graham something, perhaps? [UPDATE, 23 Aug 2010: At some point, the bakers was called Don Miller's Hot Bread Kitchen.]
• Unit 7 has recently housed a couple of short-lived fashion retailers (Gimme 5 and Bells Clothing), after previously being a branch of Select.

The resulting store will, I believe, have a ground-floor sales area of just under 5,000 sq ft, or around half that of the nearby Boots shop – a decent size, but still quite compact by Peacocks’ standards.

Prompted by my news, my mother duly went into town for a recce a couple of days ago, and reported that while there was some banging going on behind the scenes, there was no visible sign yet of the three units being combined, with no hoardings, and no signs proclaiming Peacocks’ impending arrival. This all suggests that it may be October or November before the store opens, assuming that the retailer is keen to be trading in the run-up to Christmas.

Given the revolving door of underwhelming tenants at that end of Ankerside, it’s clearly a very positive step to be welcoming a relatively big-name retailer that is likely to stick around for a while – unless, of course, Peacocks does so well it decides to upgrade to a larger site at Tamworth Junction.

Until then, the increase in footfall from Peacocks will hopefully boost Julian Graves in Unit 3 opposite – one of Tamworth’s most appealing shops (and a great use of what has always been an awkward-shaped unit), but whose premises of less than 1,000 sq ft are quietly being marketed as “to let”, “by way of an assignment of the existing lease.”

Absurdly, the advertisement contains the wording “Confidential Disposal – Staff Unaware”, despite the fact that it’s easy to find on Google (simply by searching for “3 ankerside”) and – just in case you were in any doubt – includes a prominent photo of the current occupant.

Screenshot of letting information for Julian Graves unit (6 Aug 2010)

It seems like a case of people who should know better really needing to understand how the Internet works…

Main entrance of The Range, Stockton-on-Tees (31 Jul 2010)

Yesterday I finally paid a visit – by car – to the former Big W on Portrack Lane in Stockton-on-Tees, having twice failed to find a way of getting there by bus from Stockton High Street. Since April this year, the premises have housed a branch of the home, leisure and garden retailer The Range.

Of the 33 North East Woolworths stores that closed following the company’s collapse, this is the 32nd one that I’ve visited and photographed. Something tells me a trip to Berwick-upon-Tweed will be engineered before the summer’s out.

The Range, Stockton (31 Jul 2010)

The site of Portrack’s Lane old Woolies has had quite an elaborate history. For many years, since the 1960s, the premises housed the iconic North East home and garden retailer Dickens. Badging itself as “the home improvement hypermarket”, Dickens was a pioneer of the out-of-town DIY superstore, with its advertising in the 1970s claiming that there was “nothing else like it in the country.”

In the 1980s and 90s, Dickens expanded beyond its Portrack Lane site to become a familiar site across the North East, opening stores at Shiremoor, Washington, Scotswood and Darlington. However, Dickens’ store estate proved highly attractive to its expanding competitors, and the retailer was bought out by B&Q in April 1999. The newer sites were all intended to be converted to the B&Q fascia (though Shiremoor was, I believe, later sold on to Boundary Mill Stores instead) but the presence of an existing B&Q Warehouse nearby meant that the Stockton site was surplus to requirements.

In those days, however, B&Q was owned by Kingfisher – the retail conglomerate that also included Woolworths, Comet and Superdrug – making the Stockton site an ideal location for one of the first wave of Big W superstores. The 100,000 sq ft Big W store opened in October 2000; by 2004, however – as I blogged about previously – the Big W concept had already been scrapped. Just as the Tamworth Big W store was split in two, others in the 21-strong chain were also earmarked for downsizing.

Between 2004 and its eventual closure on 30 December 2008, I’m not entirely clear whether part of the Stockton Big W was simply closed off, or whether the full floorspace continued to be used. Certainly, by the time it closed, the store was trading as Woolworths, and featured various concessions such as Peacocks. I’m sure there will be a Soult’s Retail View reader who can fill in the gaps for us.

Whatever the score was with Woolies, The Range apparently occupies 60,000 sq ft, meaning that there must be 40,000 sq ft going spare somewhere. Certainly, it’s clear from the outside of the property that not all of it is in use. The Range has reclad the section that it occupies, replacing Woolies’ white and red appearance with its own blue and orange scheme. However, the apparently unoccupied section remains untouched, as can be seen in the shot below.

The join of old and new (31 Jul 2010)

Get a little closer, and you can see that an old roof-mounted Woolworths (or Big W?) sign remains in place, highlighting the store’s ranges – clothes, toys, home, baby, cards, party, entertainment, confectionery and gifts.

Old Woolworths or Big W signage remains in place (31 Jul 2010)

Underneath, there’s also still a sign for the long-gone ‘Big Cafe’.

Big Cafe sign at Stockton's former Big W (31 Jul 2010)

However, my visit was not intended to be just a Woolies nostalgia trip – I was also curious to visit The Range for the first time, given that the Stockton store is the chain’s first in the North East.

On this blog, you may recall that my only previous mention of The Range was two months ago, when the chain’s owner, Chris Dawson, was reportedly interested in buying up some of the stores and stock of the collapsed Vergo Retail empire. For whatever reason, nothing came of that in the end, and all the Vergo stores apart from Robbs in Hexham, which was bought by Beales, were subsequently closed. Even without that transaction, however, The Range has been expanding aggressively in the last eighteen months, with 45 stores now compared to the 33 that it had in February last year.

The Range, Stockton (31 Jul 2010)

My first impression on entering the Stockton store was quite how massive it was. It may be only a portion of the old Big W, but it’s still plenty of space to accommodate quite extensive ranges across many categories, with crafts, gardening, stationery, homewares, furniture, DIY, pet supplies, toys and camping among the various departments featured.

I was also quite impressed by the quality of the store environment and merchandising, with everything much smarter and better organised than I’d perhaps expected. Recalling a visit to the Tamworth Big W not long after it opened, you might say that The Range is, in many ways, Big W’s obvious successor – stocking similar categories but arguably making a better job of filling the vast space and making it work.

Visiting an hour before closing time on Saturday, The Range seemed to be doing decent business, with plenty of cars in the car park and people laden with purchases in the store itself. Assuming that the Stockton branch is a success, it’s hard to imagine that more North East branches of The Range won’t follow, though there must be relatively few existing units that are of sufficient size.

Who knows, perhaps The Range could consider taking over all or part of the 120,000 sq ft former ILVA and Marks & Spencer Lifestore site in Gateshead, which has sat empty for the last two years? After housing two ill-fated furniture and homewares stores – that were both beautiful, but ultimately too expensive – The Range could be the more populist retailer that is needed to finally make that unit work.

George Street, Tamworth (24 Dec 2009)

Take a look at the photograph above, captured in Tamworth’s main shopping street just before Christmas. Now, from a retailing point of view, see if you can work out what’s wrong with that scene.

To the right of the man in the photograph are some of Tamworth’s permanent shops – the lifeblood of the town centre. To the left of him are the backs of market stalls, facing into George Street. What’s outrageous, in my view, is the space (or lack of it) between the two – a couple of feet at best, and certainly only room to walk through in single file. If you have a pushchair or are in a wheelchair, forget it.

The result is that not only are the shops almost entirely obscured from the street – as you can see in the shot below – but that even if you know the shops are there, it’s a real challenge to navigate your way inside.

Market stalls in George Street, Tamworth (24 Dec 2009)

A similar scene a few months earlier (19 Sep 2009)

Tamworth Market (24 Dec 2009)

Reportedly held since Saxon times, Tamworth’s market has a remarkable heritage, and is something that has potential to be a real asset to the town. What a shame then that on the 450th anniversary of its incorporation, by Queen Elizabeth in 1560, today’s market is such a sorry affair.

To have ramshackle ‘stalls’ in the middle of the town’s main shopping street, where traders display goods on a stack of cardboard boxes, is nothing short of a disgrace. Indeed, when the town has a sizeable open space – St Editha’s Square – that seems entirely capable of accommodating a large number of market stalls with some degree of orderliness, I never understand why they have to be shoehorned into George Street at all.

A near-deserted Gungate Precinct awaits demolition (22 Dec 2008)

For as long as I can remember, Tamworthians have grumbled about the lack of big-name or quality stores in the town centre – no M&S, Debenhams, Bhs, Primark, River Island or Next, for example (though a few of those names, plus many others, are now accommodated at the Ventura Park out-of-town retail development, about 15 minutes’ walk from the town centre).

The planned redevelopment of the Gungate Precinct by Henry Boot – a scheme known as Tamworth Junction – is set to provide Tamworth with its first major town centre shopping development in more than thirty years, with an opportunity to offer those missing retailers the size and quality of space that has been lacking to date.

However, if any property scouts had been visiting Tamworth the day that I was there, they would have come away with the impression of a town centre where the shops play second fiddle to the market stalls – hardly an incentive for any prospective retailer to invest in the town.

Tamworth town centre from the Castle mound (22 Dec 2008)

What is particularly frustrating is that Tamworth town centre has such a lot of potential as an attractive and distinctive retail destination. Tamworth Castle, St Editha’s Church and the Town Hall are historic buildings of importance and beauty, each one a dramatic landmark within the town centre.

St Editha's Church, Tamworth (22 Dec 2008)

Tamworth Town Hall (22 Dec 2008)

Lined with interesting old properties, Lower Gungate, Market Street and Little Church Lane are all streets of real character and charm, populated by many independent shops. It’s no coincidence that the absence of market stalls allows these streets to be properly appreciated.

Lower Gungate, Tamworth (22 Dec 2008)

Market Street, Tamworth, looking towards the Town Hall (22 Dec 2008)

The town having a Co-op department store – run by the still independent Tamworth Co-operative Society – is also something of a novelty these days, yet it has managed to evolve and maintain its position at the very heart of the town’s shopping experience at the same time as other regional Co-ops have exited non-food all together.

Co-op department store, Tamworth (19 Sep 2009)

The Ankerside Shopping Centre is also a significant asset, and has aged quite gracefully in the thirty-odd years since it opened. Though it lacks a well-known department store as an anchor, the presence of one of the few Dunnes Stores outside Ireland gives Ankerside something different to everywhere else. Equally, the relatively small number of empty units is an undoubted positive in the current economic climate – and nothing short of a miracle, given that the out-of-town Ventura Park features even more retail floorspace than the town centre.

Ankerside Shopping Centre, Tamworth (22 Dec 2008)

With so many assets, its frustrating that a visit to Tamworth town centre can still leave such a negative overall impression – an observation seemingly shared by John Harper at the Tamworth Herald newspaper, who questions why “the dreary, lacklustre place it is becoming” cannot be transformed  into “a thriving tourist centre”.

Certainly, comparing Tamworth to some of the other, more successful town centres that I’ve visited recently, I can’t help feeling that Tamworth’s powers-that-be need to have more confidence in what they’ve got, and in what they could have.

If nothing else, the place deserves so much better than a bloke in the street selling random stuff out of a box.

Shot from 1998 'Woolies Winter Wonderland' TV ad

 …That was the theme of Woolworths’ 1998 Christmas TV advertisement [broken link removed], in the heady, Tellytubby days when, as the ad reminds us, everyone wanted a Talking Po.  

This festive season, the incessant snow and ice has certainly made it a Winter Wonderland in the various town centres that I visited. However, 2009 has, of course, been the first Christmas without Woolies on the high street, meaning that shoppers have had to look elsewhere for their Barbies, PlayStations, and whatever the current equivalent to a Talking Po is.  

Trudging through the wintry conditions, I did manage to snap a few more ex-Woolies stores during the last fortnight. Interestingly, unlike my last set of pictures, where most of the former Woolworths sites that I visited had been taken over by other retailers, many of the latest batch remain vacant.

Former Big W (now M&S), Tamworth (24 Dec 2009)

The former Woolies up first is a bit of a cheat, in that it’s not one of the 807 stores that closed down following Woolworths’ collapse into administration last year, but is one that had already shut – and been taken over – shortly prior to that.  

The former out-of-town Big W at Tamworth’s Ventura Park is certainly one of the more shortlived Woolies stores (having opened, I think, in summer 2001), as well as one of the larger stores to open in recent years (90,000 sq ft). The shop lasted only until late 2004 in its original form, when it was split into two: Woolies kept the left-hand half (rebranding it from Big W to Woolworths), while the right-hand half was subsequently taken over by Marks & Spencer, which opened its own store there in November 2005.  

However, even the shrunken Woolies failed to last very long. In April 2008, Woolworths closed its store at Ventura Park all together, M&S having made an offer to take over the remainder of the building. The revamped and extended Marks & Spencer opened in December 2008, and certainly seemed to be pretty busy when I visited over Christmas. Given what happened to the Woolworths chain just a few months after the closure of the Ventura Park store, it’s probably no bad thing for Tamworth that M&S had taken over the site already. (Tamworth’s separate town centre store – closed on 2 January 2009, and now Home Bargains – has already been featured in a previous blog post.)

Former Woolworths, Burton upon Trent (23 Dec 2009)

Over in nearby Burton upon Trent, in contrast, the former Woolies in the Coopers Square shopping centre is yet to find a new occupant. However, it’s hard to imagine the unit being empty for too long, given that the centre has several strong anchors (Bhs, M&S, Primark, New Look), a modern and appealing environment, and very few other empty shops.

Former Woolworths (now TJ Hughes), Westfield, Derby (23 Dec 2009)

Down the road in Derby, the large former Woolworths in the Westfield shopping centre (the extended and renamed former Eagle Centre) has been taken over by TJ Hughes, and has reportedly been trading well since its opening in September. Woolworths had occupied the site back in the Eagle Centre days, but this photograph shows the extent of the changes made to the store’s London Road frontage as part of the Westfield revamp.

Former Woolworths, Alfreton (23 Dec 2009)

Still in Derbyshire, the old Woolies in Alfreton High Street is another of those that remains vacant. It’s quite an interesting store in that it’s a rather awkward amalgamation of a traditional-looking Woolworths building (the portion on the right) with part of the adjacent block to the left. Presumably at some point Woolies must have expanded from its original building into the premises next door?

As you know, I’m generally sceptical about the merits of dividing up large former Woolworths units; in Alfreton, however, I can’t help thinking that it would really enhance the streetscape to split this property back into two separate shops – or at least to install a new shopfront that is more sympathetic to the contrasting heights and styles of the two buildings. 

Former Woolworths (now Amber Value), Ripley (23 Dec 2009)

Down the road in Church Street in Ripley, Derbyshire, the inclusion of the property above in this blog is again something of a cheat, given that it has not been a Woolworths store for many years. There’s a personal story behind this store though, in that my grandparents (and much of my family) lived in Ripley during my childhood, and I can well remember visiting Ripley’s Woolies with my gran and parents.

When the store shut (in January 1990, I believe), I can still recall my gran grumbling about the then state of Ripley’s town centre, recognising the symbolic importance – and the humiliation, almost – of the town losing its Woolworths. Twenty years on, however, you might argue that Ripley has had the last laugh. When Woolworths closed, the long-established Amber Value store – then occupying the narrow, two-bay property that you see in the middle of the picture above – extended into the much larger Woolworths premises next door (the left-hand building in the photo), increasing its floor area several times over as a result.

Since then, Amber Value has continued to trade successfully from the site, offering an eclectic but highly useful range of household items, such as homewares, gardening products, stationery and toiletries. Today, the store is rightly valued by local people as a place to buy items that are not readily available elsewhere in the town centre – everything, you might argue, that Woolworths used to be.

Former Woolworths (now Lighthouse charity shop), Heanor (23 Dec 2009)

Back to the more recent Woolies closures, and in nearby Heanor the old Woolworths store is occupied by a Lighthouse charity shop, though only on a short-term basis judging by the continued presence of a ‘To Let’ sign. I wasn’t familiar with this enterprise prior to my visit, but I understand that Lighthouse is a growing chain of charity shops across Derbyshire operated by Valley CIDS, a Christian charity “that is committed to building and strengthening community in and around Derbyshire”, and which works “to support children and families through outreach work in schools and the wider community”.

As has happened in Burnley – where the YMCA has turned the 16,000 sqft former Woolworths into the largest charity superstore in the country – there are inevitably questions about how effective a charity shop can be in enhancing the fortunes of a town centre, particularly in the aftermath of an important Woolworths store being lost. As a shorter-term measure, however, using such units to promote beneficial charity work is surely preferable to the properties lying empty.

Former Woolworths, Dumfries (29 Dec 2009)

The two remaining former Woolies featured here are indeed both stores that have yet to find a new occupant. The first, in Dumfries, was reported back in September as being ‘under offer’, though there was no evidence of anything happening – and a ‘To Let’ sign still in place – when I visited last week.

Former Woolworths, Dumfries (29 Dec 2009)

Fittingly, given the Winter Wonderland theme with which we started, the final Woolies for now is the one in Chester-le-Street, photographed – during a snow shower – just yesterday. Unfortunately for Chester-le-Street town centre, the still vacant Woolworths premises in Front Street are directly opposite those of the former Co-op department store, which closed down in 2007 and is only partly reoccupied (by Peacocks, since April 2009).

Former Woolworths, Chester-le-Street (2 Jan 2010)

Throughout these changes, it’s refreshing to see Chester-le-Street Heritage Group doing its bit to both promote and document the town’s retail history, including setting up a display of old photographs of the Woolworths store during its final days. The former Woolworths store is certainly an attractive building in a very central location within Chester-le-Street, so I’d be surprised if the Heritage Group didn’t have some good news to report upon and document during 2010.

Former Woolworths in Houghton-le-Spring

Though I can’t claim to make a habit of visiting six old Woolies stores in the same day (including Houghton-le-Spring, above), I have managed to build up a pretty good collection of former Woolworths pics over the last year or so – snapping them as I spot them, and, it must be admitted, making the occasional detour expressly to get another one.

I figured that it was therefore time to bring together all the photos of old Woolies that haven’t featured in Soult’s Retail View already, together with some of the ones that we’ve seen before. As you would expect it’s certainly an interesting mix, with some success stories but also plenty of properties that remain unoccupied nine months after Woolies’ demise.

Woolworths, Whitley Bay (26 Dec 2008)

To kick off, this photo of the store in Whitley Bay was taken on Boxing Day last year, a few days prior to closure. Sadly, I understand that the store is still empty, with little sign of anything happening. On the plus side, nothing seems to have come of the suggestion, from no less than the (now former) Elected Mayor, that the building should be turned into a new library; if Whitley Bay is to have any future as a retail centre, taking the town’s largest and most prominent shop unit out of retail use surely seems like a crazy idea.

Back in March I emailed the northern variety store retailer Boyes to suggest that Whitley Bay would be a perfect location for one of its shops. Whitley Bay, I argued, needed “a store like yours that sells a wide range of products at reasonable prices” – in my view, it’s this type of useful, everyday retailer that is most likely to get shoppers popping back into the town centre on a regular basis. Anyone who’s ever visited a Boyes store will appreciate that it’s the epitome of this kind of shop – truly a treasure trove of handy stuff such as homewares, toys, stationery, toiletries and clothing.

To Boyes’ great credit, I promptly got a personal email back from no less a figure than the company’s chairman, Andrew Boyes, confirming that the retailer was “interested in expansion into the [Tyne and Wear] area” and was “looking at opportunities”. So, though nothing has happened yet, the door for Boyes to pick up some old Woolies seemingly remains ajar.

Still in December last year, being in Chesterfield for my cousin’s wedding presented me with an opportunity to tick off another old Woolies that had closed down just three days earlier, in the town’s Vicar Lane Shopping Centre. Despite being a good-looking and well-located unit, the Vicar Lane store guide indicates that this store too remains empty almost ten months on.

Former Woolworths, Chesterfield (30 Dec 2008)

Moving north of the border, another vacant unit is the store in Perth, captured not long after closure in February. As far as I can gather, however, this store also remains unoccupied.

Former Woolworths, Perth (23 Feb 2009)

Some good news now, and the old Woolworths in Hexham, in Northumberland – one of the very first tranche of 51 Woolies stores to be acquired by Iceland, back in January. This shot was taken in August, a couple of weeks before the store opened.

Former Woolworths, Hexham (8 Aug 2009)

Iceland acquired another Northumberland store, in Morpeth, at the same time. This photo was also taken in August, with the supermarket already trading. To Iceland’s credit, it has done a good job in both Hexham and Morpeth of sprucing up two properties that were looking in need of some TLC while in Woolworths’ care.

Former Woolworths, Morpeth (15 Aug 2009)

I’ve already written, in some depth, about my recent visit to Durham. As I noted then, the new Tesco Metro in the former Market Place Woolworths seems to be nicely mopping up those city centre shoppers left adrift by last year’s departure of Waitrose.

Former Woolworths, Durham (11 Sep 2009)

There’s no need to repeat the photos that you’ve already seen of former Woolworths in Redcar, Middlesbrough, Stockton-on-Tees, Hartlepool and Gateshead – all taken on 17 September – or the shot I used last week of the empty MetroCentre branch.

So let’s end, for the moment, with this shot of the recently opened Home Bargains in Tamworth, Staffordshire.

Former Woolworths, Tamworth (19 Sep 2009)

Tamworth and I go back a long way – it’s the place where I went to school, and is somewhere I still visit from time to time. So, I was pleased to see that Home Bargains had done such a good job of turning the slightly tired Woolworths premises in George Street into a really bright and modern store. Indeed, Home Bargains’ comprehensive refit of the unit, including a smart new shopfront, has successfully avoided the problem of the building still feeling like an old Woolworths (cf. Redcar or Middlesbrough).

It was also the first time I’d seen a tweaked Home Bargains fascia – in burgundy and grey, instead of the more garish red and bright blue – but it does work well in conveying a slightly more quality image for the retailer, as well as being more in keeping with the overall look of the street.

That’s all for now – but you can look forward to part 2 in due course which will feature a selection of Welsh former Woolworths stores – Holyhead, Porthmadog, Prestatyn, Rhyl, Colwyn Bay and Llandudno – as well as a few more local ones in Byker, Gosforth, Newcastle and Consett.

Time for a lie down, I think.

Co-op Department Store, Great Yarmouth, prior to Vergo Retail's takeover. Photograph by Stephen McKay

In the last couple of weeks, one interesting news story that has been easy to miss is the takeover of the East of England Co-op’s department store business by Vergo Retail.

Vergo Retail, as you may be aware, is the Liverpool-based operation headed by David Thompson that, in 2007, rescued Lewis’s of Liverpool, Joplings of Sunderland and Robbs of Hexham from the brink of closure after Owen Owen, the previous owner, had gone into administration.

Reports suggest that Vergo Retail has been doing rather well since then. Certainly, the business has been performing well enough to snap up the non-food operation of the Plymouth & South West Co-operative Society^{[broken link removed]} (PSWCS) in February this year, including the Derrys department store in Plymouth and four additional Homemaker stores in Devon and Cornwall; and well enough to double the size of the business again, just a couple of weeks ago, with the acquisition of twelve East of England Co-op shops. This latest acquisition includes department stores in Norwich, Ipswich, Colchester, Clacton-on-Sea and Great Yarmouth, as well as six home stores in Felixstowe, Stowmarket, Clacton, Stanway, Dovercourt and Witham, and a standalone jewellery store in Colchester.

These developments are notable for various reasons, not least in being illustrative of the extent to which the UK’s consumer co-operative movement as a whole has recently been seeking to exit the non-food sector. A critical milestone in this respect was the Co-operative Group’s decision, in 2005, to close or sell its 36 department stores; here in the North East, this resulted in the closure of landmark stores in Gateshead, Newcastle, Chester-le-Street and elsewhere, while a few others – including Bishop Auckland, Blyth and (briefly) Berwick-upon-Tweed – became part of Anglia Regional Co-operative Society’s Westgate Department Stores business.

Co-op department store, Tamworth

The impact of the Co-operative Group’s exit from department stores has been significant. First, it has created challenges for those (dwindling number of) independent co-operative societies that remain – such as East of England and, in my parents’ home town, Tamworth Co-op – requiring them to source new suppliers and renogotiate with existing ones, while having to work increasingly hard to maintain gross margins. Second, it has meant that for any societies seeking to merge with the larger Co-operative Group – such as United Co-op in 2007, and PSWCS in 2009 – prior disposal or closure of their department stores has essentially been a prerequisite.

Vergo Retail’s recent moves are therefore significant in that they seem to offer unloved and unwanted Co-op department stores a lifeline - as non-Co-op department stores. In the east of England, there can be little doubt that many of the now-saved stores would have closed had Vergo not stepped in - yet they are all shops that have a loyal clientele; that perform an important function within their respective communities; and that, with some dynamic management and a little investment, could once again be highly successful. Indeed, as Vergo expands its empire, its ability to secure improved supplier terms – and offer better deals to customers – will be enhanced; the very opposite situation to that faced by the few remaining co-operatives with non-food interests.

What is interesting, from a historical point of view, is that I can think of no precedent where Co-op department stores have been acquired, as going concerns, by a non-co-operative retailer; rather, if you were to go back to the 1950s and earlier you would see the process happening in reverse, with independent department stores - such as Newcastle’s Henry A Murton’s in Grainger Street^{[broken link removed]} – being acquired by local co-ops.

Vergo Retail's established Robbs of Hexham store

Going forward, much will depend of course on whether Vergo can successfully turn around the mostly loss-making stores that it has acquired; however, the company’s apparent success in reinvigorating Lewis’s, Joplings and Robbs (no-one can forget the sad, plundered interior of Robbs in the days leading up to its aborted closure) bodes well. For me, though, the burning question – and one that I cannot find either asked or answered anywhere else – is how will Vergo rebrand its newly acquired stores in Norfolk, Suffolk and Essex? After all, a store that is no longer a co-operative can barely be called a ‘Co-op Department Store’.

It will be interesting to see whether Vergo comes up with some locally-inspired names, or whether – in House of Fraser style – it seeks to bring some brand consistency to its growing portfolio. Lewis’s of Clacton, anyone?

Thank you to Stephen McKay for the use of the photograph of Great Yarmouth’s Co-op (now Vergo) department store, which is © Copyright Stephen McKay and licensed for re-use under the Creative Commons Licence.