Fashion chain gives New Look to Littlewoods site

From the The Wiltshire Gazette and Herald, first published Thursday 5th Jan 2006.

THE Littlewoods shop in Chippenham's Borough Parade is to be turned into a flagship New Look fashion store five times the size of its existing premises in the town.

The new store will open on March 23 and will increase in size from 1,948 sq ft to 11,000 sq ft and include both a menswear section and a kidswear section.

Traders have welcomed the news that Kentucky Fried Chicken will not be opening an outlet following the closure of the Littlewoods store at the end of this week.

Littlewoods will close for trading on Saturday after the chain was bought out by Primark in July. The unit will be taken over by clothes shop New Look which will move from its current site in Borough Parade.

Rumours had abounded that a Kentucky Fried Chicken outlet would be moving into New Look's current site raising fears among traders of unsightly litter and food wrappings.

But yesterday a spokesman from Kentucky Fried Chicken quashed the rumours and said it was not currently looking at moving in to Borough Parade.

The manager of Books and Puzzles in Borough Parade, Sandra Packham, said: "I don't think anybody around here would be particularly pleased if a KFC did come here so it's good news that that's not the case.

"We're already losing Littlewoods, which I think will have a big impact on the shopping area, and I just hope the replacement is a good one."

The manager of jewellers David Christopher, Phyllis Hall, was also against the idea of a fast food outlet. She said: "Being a jeweller directly opposite it wouldn't be particularly pretty and I think we need something here that will help the parade. Retail has to be better than an food outlet."

Simon Pullen took over from Lionel Dicks as manager of Borough Parade on Tuesday.

He said: "Borough Parade is looking very well at the moment and we're up eight or nine per cent on the national average. All the traders are happy when they see that and they are hitting their targets.

"I'm quite sad to see the Littlewoods brand go because it offers a lot and I think it brings a lot of people in. Their sales have gone extremely well and if you go in there now there's hardly anything left on the shelves."

A spokesman for New Look confirmed that it had several traders showing interest in its current site but was unable to release any names at this stage.

One other unit also lies empty in Borough Parade although Mr Pullen said there had not yet been any interest shown.

He said: "I don't think anybody really wants to see fast food outlets because of the perception that they become messy.

"However as long as ground rules are laid down and followed that needn't be the case and I think that as a result they shouldn't be automatically shied away from.

"Anything that's new and vibrant is good for the centre but we do need to fill these units and ideally that would be with retail."

Archive Home