QD to move into Woolworths site? (From Gazette)
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QD to move into Woolworths site?
2:00am Friday 7th August 2009 in
A DISCOUNT store is hoping to move into Colchester’s empty Woolworths site.
QD Stores is negotiating to take over the Culver Square shop, which fronts onto Head Street and is seen as a prime retail spot.
However, the move depends on it getting new tenants to take on its current shop in St John's Street.
The move would double QD’s Colchester sale space from 14,723 to 30,000 square feet and increase its staff from 15 to between 25 and 30.
Alan Hatcher, marketing manager for QD, said: “We want to have a bigger store so we can offer our customers a wider variety of stock.
“Woolworths are all in decent locations and the QD group is expanding rapidly.
“A place like Woolworths in Colchester would mean more customers for us, so we would need more staff.”
QD has already taken over five empty Woolworths in the east of England since the former high street giant went into administration last year, and plans to move into five more.
However, its plans depend on a big retailer taking over its current building in St John’s Street for £106,000 a year.
Gordon Birchall, of Sudbury consultant surveyors Birchall Steel, which is marketing QD’s current store, said: “Obviously they can’t run two shops in town, so we are doing a bit of a fishing exercise to see if anyone might want to move in St John’s Street. Woolworths closed in December last year.
Comments(13)
Smouldering Ewok
says...
11:21pm Thu 6 Aug 09
Same old, same old.
They tell us one thing and then go do something completely different.
What`s next?
Wilkinson`s moving to the zavvi site?
Give the shop keepers a break and reduce rents now!
The REAL Norm
says...
9:35am Fri 7 Aug 09
ICareCol
says...
10:10am Fri 7 Aug 09
Lower the rents and smarten up our run-down and scruffy town centre, and maybe, just maybe, we will entice some decent shops to open here.
WTF
says...
10:17am Fri 7 Aug 09
We could also really do with a Mothercare.
hughie-s
says...
1:08pm Fri 7 Aug 09
WTF wrote:We had a Mothercare in Culver Walk; as it closed I assume it was unprofitable.
If it must be a discount store then surely Primark would be by far the bast option.
We could also really do with a Mothercare.
Boris
says...
1:50pm Fri 7 Aug 09
We don't need to make any concessions to Primark, the chain that pays only half the minimum wage to the workers who make its products. If chains like Primark wanted to come to Colchester then they would take whatever size shop was going.
As Hughie-s says, Mothercare obviously failed to make enough profit, so maybe we Colchester people are tightwads who don't spend enough for their liking.
Or perhaps our tastes are different. Waterstones has been operating two bookshops less than 100 metres apart for many years so we must presume they are profitable.
Let's see more book shops, not cheapskate clothes shops of which we have enough already.
LISAMARIESEATON
says...
2:58pm Fri 7 Aug 09
I would have prefered a Primark, as I have to go to lakeside (not overkeen on the ipswich one) to get cheaper clothes.
I disagree with the comment that we have too many clothes shops - a lot of them have closed down (the ones that stock my tiny size anyway lol)
Oh well we shall soon see what becomes of culver square :-0
Taj
says...
3:09pm Fri 7 Aug 09
Now I understand the search is on for a second park and ride in Colchester,it begs the question when will we get the first one and what have all the consultants been doing if they havnt already figured it out where the suitable sites are.
Chappel Beer Festival seems a good place to go at least they can organise a P in a B
Poacher
says...
3:52pm Fri 7 Aug 09
Apparently they look for 30,000 square feet as a minimum. The article did say that Primark werent alone in this view and that other big name retailers had similar reservations about opening in Colchester.
Mothercare's marketing strategy has followed principles where they look to compete through big out of town stores. This has been driven by the tremedously competitive internet market in baby equipment. Their only hope of survival is cut their overheads, ie combining stores where the market place allows.
Jimmy
says...
7:59pm Fri 7 Aug 09
Why on earth would Primark and other large national retailers need to open a store in Colchester when so many Colchester people seem happy to trot over to Ipswich and Lakeside?
Boris
says...
10:17pm Fri 7 Aug 09
And as Poacher says, internet shopping has taken a lot of market share. Everyone who shops on line helps to kill off real live shops.
Ambers
says...
8:52pm Sun 9 Aug 09
The retail picture in Colchester is not as bleak as some chose to paint it although I think the council in conjunction with both the centre managers at Lion Yard & Culver Centres need to be more proactive in getting clients.
The Culver Centre has been remoulded in the last 20 years to facilitate the support of Zavvi (formally Virgin) and Woolworths, orginally their units were made up of smaller units.
Maybe the time has come back to revert back to the original units breakdown to ensure tenants in these tough times.
Outside of high retail rents which are still being charged, the biggest issue on commercial leases is the ability of the freedhold owner to chase previous tenants for payment, recently we had the issue of WH Smith paying the rent on its former Do It All Store on Ipswich Road after Glynn Webb went into administration, this may explain why landlords seem not to be getting new tenants for empty units...in practice most are still being paid even without a sitting tenant...nuts !
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bsidethecside says...
8:23pm Thu 6 Aug 09
To quote a Gazette article of July 15
"Derek Ashbee, who runs Culver Square Shopping Centre, said he did not want a food store or cheap-looking discount store replacing Woolworth’s or Zavvi"
Bit of a u-turn there then!