Poundland, the biggest single price retailer in Europe, is to take over a former Woolworths store in Farnborough town centre.
David Coxon, trading director at Poundland, said: “We’re looking forward to opening a store in Farnborough – Poundland’s arrival will create around 30 jobs and excellent new shopping opportunities.”
The 11,500sq ft site is part of a development being run by regeneration specialist St. Modwen .
James Stockdale, development manager at St. Modwen, said: “The closure of Woolworths stores across the country earlier this year brought more unwanted empty units to retail schemes but also opportunities for developers to bring fresh tenants to their projects. These deals show that we can realise the value of these units and bring them back into operation at popular shopping locations.”
Poundland, which was represented by Smith Price, is scheduled to open in November.
Meanwhile work has began converting the former Woolworth’s store at Sheringham, Norfolk into a new Sainsbury’s Local convenience shop.
A six-week re-fit of the High Street store is under way, with an opening planned for early November.
Sainsbury’s said the 25 full and part-time jobs had now been filled while the store manager Lee Hinton had joined from the company’s supermarket at North Walsham.
The store will offer a range of fresh goods, groceries, Sainsbury’s Basics low-price ranges and an in-store bakery.
The supermarket’s acquisition of the shop comes as it grows its convenience store numbers with 50 new outlets set to open in 2009/10 and a further 100 in the following 12 months.
Rival Tesco is aiming to build a bigger store on the Cromer Road. District council planners will visit the site ahead of making a decision about the long-standing and controversial scheme.
