It was early January, 2009, when the doors closed for the last time at Woolworths shops, potentially leaving a gaping hole in the retail heart of towns such as Shipley, Ilkley, Otley, Brighouse and Keighley.
However, despite the poor state of the economy, many established and new retailers have taken advantage of Woolies’ downfall by expanding their store portfolios into prominent empty shops.
In Bradford the company’s superstore at the Victoria Centre in Girlington, branded as the Big W before its closure, was soon occupied by The Range, a discount store whose 16 departments fill the 70,000sq ft space.
Speaking to the Telegraph & Argus last night, deputy store manager Shane Camm said: “The store has been doing OK, but it has been better this last year now it has been established that little bit more. We are doing better and better.”
The Range, selling home, leisure and garden-based goods, has almost 60 stores across the country.
When the Girlington branch opened in July 2009 it created 200 jobs.
Shopper Sarah Turner said: “I absolutely love it. It’s fantastic because you can get absolutely anything. I come when I’m decorating and I don’t want to go into town because it costs a fortune to park, and it’s got a really good toy section.
“Woolworths had everything. I loved it. Because you’ve grown up with it it’s a brand you know.”
Meanwhile, work is underway to refurbish the former Woolworth’s store in Queensway, Keighley, part of the Airedale Centre. The Telegraph & Argus has discovered that it will re-open as the women’s fashion shop New Look.
The location had been unused since the Woolworths store was axed two years ago.
The store in Skipton, prominent at the bottom of High Street, soon re-opened after it was closed. It is now run by the general store Yorkshire Trading Company and sells many of the items once available at the old store.
The Yorkshire Trading Company also moved into the vacant Woolworths building in Commercial Street, Brighouse, in July 2009. But a closing down sale is currently being advertised before it shuts up shop on Saturday, January 15.
Store manager Karen Wimpenny said trade had improved since the sale began.
“We’re getting a lot of customers, and the location is good,” she said. “Six staff will be looking for jobs. A lot of our usual customers are really upset we are going – they’re gutted and we are sad to go.”
Clothing and homeware retailer Store Twenty One, is expected to move into the space in February. The company has a track record of taking over former Woolworths stores after moving into the one in Shipley in April last year.
The arrival of Store Twenty One on Shipley’s Market Place created 11 new jobs and was welcomed by town centre managers as “absolutely brilliant news”.
Meanwhile, shoppers in Ilkley eventually got two for the price of one after the closure of the Brook Street branch of Woolworths in January 2009 with the loss of about 20 jobs.
The store, which was part of the Station Plaza complex, owned by Edinburgh-based Hunter Property Fund Management (HPFM), was split into two units. Coffee shop chain Caffe Nero moved into one of the units last June, while a few weeks later outdoor clothing and camping equipment retailer Mountain Warehouse opened in the other unit.
The Yorkshire Trading Company returned to Otley after an absence of nearly a decade in November 2009, when it replaced Woolworths.
The company created about 15 new jobs when it moved into the old Woolworths store in Kirkgate after an absence of nine years from the town.
Based in Driffield, the Yorkshire Trading Company has been running for more than half a century and sells a wide range of goods including stationery, gifts, household products, hardware, confectionery and the Rydale clothing range.
Trevor Backhouse, president of Otley Chamber of Commerce, said: “We don’t like to see any shops empty in Otley and I think Woolworths closing down was a shock to the whole country.
“But it was quickly refilled and now it’s the Yorkshire Trading Company. It seems to be attracting lots of people so it’s good that it has been filled.
“It’s of a similar nature with affordable goods and attracts lots of people so I suppose we were lucky really. But from what I’ve seen around other towns all the former Woolworths have been filled.”
In Pudsey, B&M Bargains moved swiftly to fill the gap left by Woolworths by moving into its former store in Church Lane just a few months after it was vacated. The discount store, which has been trading since 1976 with stores across the country, made the most of Woolworths’ downfall and moved into several empty stores in England and Wales.
Val Summerscales, of Bradford Chamber of Trade, said the vast majority of former Woolworths stores across the district had been filled by other businesses.
She said: “It’s sad when something of that magnitude closes because it has an impact in towns and cities across the board. Some took longer than others to be filled by new businesses, depending on the floor space as to whether they were attractive to different types of business.
“We are obviously delighted to welcome new businesses where they have come into stores that have closed down.”
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