Retail in Leeds City Centre

[lazygamer]

Muji are closing their Briggate store on Saturday

[lazygamer]

Regarding GAME, OpCapita (the firm behind the £1 buyout of Comet) and Walmart have both apparently made offers for the firm, with the rumour that they may even split the firm, one taking GAME the other taking the Gamestation brand. However it's unknown whether this is for the retail operation, the websites or both.

[Leeds No.1]

Yeah I saw that Muji will be closing. Sad really, they've been a good retailer to have. I just hope the unit attracts a decent name after and we don't get another Blue Star or 99p shop.

[di Livio]

Originally Posted by Leeds No.1

Yeah I saw that Muji will be closing. Sad really, they've been a good retailer to have. I just hope the unit attracts a decent name after and we don't get another Blue Star or 99p shop.

That's a real risk in Leeds now it seems. Whether some folks like it or not, the number of pound shops, betting shops, and pawnbrokers really is a comment on what kind of city Leeds is at the moment. If high end retailers migrate to Trinity or Eastgate, the main shopping streets could seriously diminish in quality over time.

[lazygamer]

Originally Posted by di Livio

That's a real risk in Leeds now it seems. Whether some folks like it or not, the number of pound shops, betting shops, and pawnbrokers really is a comment on what kind of city Leeds is at the moment. If high end retailers migrate to Trinity or Eastgate, the main shopping streets could seriously diminish in quality over time.

You make it sound like pound shops, betting shops and pawnbrokers are only opening in Leeds and that every other city in the country doesn't have any or isn't seeing an influx of them. The number of bookmakers was increasing before the financial crisis as a result of the relaxed gambling laws (and the money being made in brick and mortar bookmakers has been flat for the last two years).

[Suburban Knight]

Gutted by the loss of Muji. Where will I buy really bland clothing and really expensive clear plastic boxes now?!

[lazygamer]

Originally Posted by Suburban Knight

Gutted by the loss of Muji. Where will I buy really bland clothing and really expensive clear plastic boxes now?!

They were nice plastic boxes though (you can still buy them online)

[Leeds No.1]

Originally Posted by di Livio

That's a real risk in Leeds now it seems. Whether some folks like it or not, the number of pound shops, betting shops, and pawnbrokers really is a comment on what kind of city Leeds is at the moment. If high end retailers migrate to Trinity or Eastgate, the main shopping streets could seriously diminish in quality over time.

I agree to an extent, but don't think this will happen to Briggate on the whole.

After Trinity, Eastgate and with the VQ, Briggate will remain at the centre of the retail quarter.

Briggate is also a remarkably wide street so I wouldn't be surprised if it becomes a much more leisure-orientated street with restaurants/cafes in the future.

I've also said before that I'd like to see a regular market back on Briggate.

[Aaronj09]

Yes, why can't Briggate move away from retail? It could become a street lined with restaurants and street cafes, or maybe a cinema could open, the possibilities are endless.

[Val Verde]

Massive shame that Muji is closing down tomorrow although it was a long time coming with the closing of Muji announced on here way back in September 2009. http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showth...51592&page=151

Had a brief look inside today and noticed the upstairs was already closed off although strangely there was no sign of any of the stuff being reduced in price despite the store closing down tomorrow. So are all Muji stores closing completely or are they just going to (ala Habitat or Uniqlo) retain a presence in Lahndahn? Pity Muji couldn't be retained as a concession within say Debenhams or House of Fraser.

I hope it is closing only because someone else has agreed to takeover the store and whoever replaces it is a quality tenant and surely it is in a prime spot by Primark, (for now) Topshop and Clas Ohlson (that store does seem usually and disconcertingly quiet though making me wonder how long term a future that store will have). I guess a restaurant or cafe could be a distinct possibility considering the size of the unit perhaps suiting such a use (Caffe Nero perhaps joining rivals Costa and Starbucks in having a presence on Leeds's main shopping street or maybe a return for Pizza Hut to Leeds City Centre or yet another Nandos or Pizza Express). Still in the same neck of the woods as Muji someone really does need to occupy the old Borders as well as there being a need to revive the dilapidated southern side of The Headrow between Briggate and Vicar Lane perhaps including an extension of the Cross Arcade from the Victoria Quarter through Reiss and onto The Headrow. Have any planning / licening applications been made for that unit recently?

As for Briggate moving away from retail completely I can't see that personally considering location right between Trinity Leeds, Victoria Quarter and potentially Eastgate with many of the big stores including Marks & Spencer, Debenhams, House of Fraser, Primark, Harvey Nichols, Topshop / Topman and River Island (when Trinity opens) having a presence on the street.

[flange]

Originally Posted by Val Verde

I hope it is closing only because someone else has agreed to takeover the store and whoever replaces it is a quality tenant and surely it is in a prime spot by Primark, (for now) Topshop and Clas Ohlson (that store does seem usually and disconcertingly quiet though). I guess a restaurant or cafe could be a distinct possibility considering the size of the unit perhaps suiting such a use (Caffe Nero perhaps joining rivals Costa and Starbucks in having a presence on Leeds's main shopping street or maybe a return for Pizza Hut to Leeds City Centre or yet another Nandos or Pizza Express). Still in the same neck of the woods as Muji someone really does need to occupy the old Borders as well as there being a need to revive the dilapidated southern side of The Headrow between Briggate and Vicar Lane perhaps including an extension of the Cross Arcade from the Victoria Quarter through Reiss and onto The Headrow. Have any planning / licening applications been made for that unit recently?

Looks like it is closing due to a new retailer being found, the lease for the store has been on the market for some time and now it is being listed as 'Under Offer' on marketing websites.

[di Livio]

Originally Posted by Suburban Knight

Gutted by the loss of Muji. Where will I buy really bland clothing and really expensive clear plastic boxes now?!

I don't think I ever stepped inside Muji. I just liked their trendy shop sign.

[flange]

Peacocks Seacroft to become Poundland.

Poundland acquires eight ex-Peacocks stores

By Jon Whiteaker

Mon 19th March 2012

Discount retailer Poundland is to create an additional 220 jobs for the retail sector after acquiring eight former Peacocks stores, it was announced today.

Value fashion retailer Peacocks was bought out of administration by Edinburgh Woollen Mill last month, but 244 of its 632 stores were left out of the deal and were subsequently shut.

The closures resulted in over 3,000 redundancies at the group, and so the news that Poundland will reuse some of the sites is good news for the sector.

Included in the deal with Poundland are the former Peacocks stores in Seacroft, Haringey, Newmarket, Yate, Brighton, Dartford, Falkirk & Hoxton, and Poundland says that it hopes to purchase more of the abandoned units in due course.

Jim McCarthy, CEO of Poundland, commented: “Poundland has grown significantly over the past 12 months and we will continue to open new stores creating local employment opportunities.

“We are delighted to bring our unique and well proven single price discount proposition and provide amazing value every day to thousands of new customers in these towns.”

Poundland already operates 389 stores nationwide and these additional properties will give it approximately 44,000 sq ft more selling space.

The stores in Seacroft, Haringey and Newmarket will all reopen on Thursday April 5th 2012, while the other units acquired in this deal will start trading at a later date.

http://www.retailgazette.co.uk/artic...eacocks-stores

[Val Verde]

Has any interest been expressed for other branches of Peacocks which have closed down such as those at Crown Point and in Trinity Walk, Wakefield and at the Piazza Centre in Huddersfield?

[flange]

Well 30 of the stores have been relet to Poundland, Poundworld and Iceland, we got the Poundland locations today, just the Poundworld and Iceland ones to come now.

Peacocks administrators agree deals with Poundland, Poundworld and Iceland

14 March 2012

By Kat Spybey

The administrators of Peacocks have negotiated deals on 30 stores that were not included in the sale of the business to Poundland, Poundworld and Iceland.

Richard Fleming, Chris Laverty, Ed Boyle and Joff Pope of KPMG were appointed as administrators to Peacocks in January, in what was the biggest retail failure of 2012, and in February agreed a deal to sell 224 of the stores to Edinburgh Woollen Mill.

KMPG has now announced that Poundland, Poundworld and Iceland have snapped up 30 of the remaining stores, which range from 4,000 to 20,000 sq ft.

KPMG is also in discussions with Edinburgh Woollen Mill regarding 17 former Peacocks stores. The administrators have surrendered the leases on a further 53 closed stores to landlords.

Mark Bayley, restructuring real estate director at KPMG, said: “We are actively marketing the remaining 124 stores, which continue to attract a high level of interest from a variety of goods and food operators.”

Peacocks had total group debt of more than £700m, including around £133m from a syndicate of senior lenders and more than £500m of mezzanine and junior facilities from other lenders.

He added: “Employees will be paid in full but, due to the severity of the indebtedness of the company, senior secured lenders are unlikely to make a full recovery and there will be a very small return to unsecured creditors. We continue to recover value were possible and, to this end, the assignment of leases of closed stores continues apace, as does the collection of international debtors.”

http://www.propertyweek.com/news/new...033549.article

[Val Verde]

The Body Shop on Briggate is currently closed for refurbishment until April advertising customers to use their stores in The Light and railway station instead. At least it is a clear sign that Body Shop will retain a presence on Briggate even when Trinity Leeds opens next year as I would have thought they would try to open a store as part of that development considering their presence in the old Trinity Arcade.



On another note Muji on Briggate still appeared as of this lunch time to be open although it looked like pallets were being prepared to strip out any remaining stock unsold.

[flange]

Game to file for administration.

Game Group to file for administration Game says there is no equity value left in the business

Struggling video games retailer Game Group has said it intends to file for administration.

Earlier, shares in Game were suspended "pending clarification of the company's financial position".

The firm said talks with stakeholders and other parties had not made enough progress to offer "a realistic prospect for a solvent solution".

Game has seen its business eroded by competition from online-only retailers, such as Steam and Amazon.

Last week, the retailer confirmed that a number of suppliers were refusing to do business with the company.

The group, which is headquartered in Basingstoke, has 1,300 stores worldwide, including 600 in the UK.

It said the business would continue to trade and discussions with lenders and third parties would continue.

'Over-expansion'

In an earlier statement on Wednesday, the firm asked for its shares to be suspended, saying the value of the company had been eroded.

Shares in Game closed at 2.39p on Tuesday, having fallen from 62p a year ago.

Game acquired GameStation in 2007, adding hundreds of new stores to its portfolio. Piers Harding-Rolls, head of games at IHS Screen Digest, said that with hindsight, this move could now be seen as over-expansion.

"Whilst it reaped the reward of this in 2008, when lots of content was sold thanks to new consoles and handheld devices, the packaged game market has since declined," he said.

But he added that there was still a place for a large specialist games retailer on the High Street, with 70% of spend on games content in the UK still in the form of physical media.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-17455742

[di Livio]

Originally Posted by flange

Game to file for administration.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-17455742

Game. Over.

[Val Verde]

Originally Posted by di Livio

Game. Over.

Certainly was unsurprising since big publishers such as EA and Nintendo refused to stock their games with Game / Gamestation. It makes you wonder though why GAME had to have so many stores following takeovers from the 1990s onwards in order of (to my knowledge) Future Zone, Electronics Boutique and latterly Game Station although I cannot see specialist video game shops having much of a future considering the growth of internet downloads with the Playstation 4 and XBox 720 rumoured to only use downloads as opposed to using discs to play games on.

Almost certainly I can see this mean the closure of Game on Albion Street (already announced) and Gamestation on Kirkgate thus leaving Game on The Headrow remaining (although I wonder if a proposed move to Trinity Leeds would still take place which I would have thought would be desirable considering it would create a larger new unit on the ground floor of The Core which New Look could expand into unless they are also moving to Trinity Leeds) in addition to perhaps Game at Crown Point Retail Park closing with Game at the White Rose Centre remaining open. Also I can see Gamestations at Birstall and Cross Gates close down.

In addition certainly two of the three Game / Gamestation stores in Bradford City Centre will be closing in addition to perhaps branches of Game / Gamestation elsewhere in particular smaller towns which don't make any monies.

[flange]

Azendi at Victoria Quarter, Harrogate and Headingley stay open, but Azendi in York closed today.

Azendi founder releases administration statement

By Kathryn Bishop

Mar 23, 2012

Ian Jones, the founder of jewellery chain Azendi which recently filed for administration, has released a statement thanking his staff for their hard work and customers for their support. He also highlighted some of the causes of the company's demise.

Jones references the internet, increasing building rates and the recession as attributing to Azendi's closure, but expresses thanks for the "great sacrifices" made by his store managers and staff to keep the business afloat.

He also reveals that he has secured the future of the Headingley store - the first opened by Jones in 1989 - and that five other stores will remain open including London Westfield, Leeds and Aberdeen.

Jewellery from the Azendi brand will continue to be sold through House of Fraser stores, and Jones says that more Azendi concessions will be rolled out across House of Fraser locations in the UK, bringing the concession number to 40.

The statement was released on Facebook and Twitter.

On the retailer's Facebook page many fans expressed upset at the news. One user, Katie Courtney, said: "I'm so sorry to hear this. I worked at the Headingley branch between around 1999 and 2001 and have such fond memories of my time with Azendi. I'm pleased to hear about the expansion with House of Fraser though. Good luck with all you do in the future."

A number of store managers also took to Facebook to thank staff and customers for their kind words having closed their stores yesterday. Cate Parker, store manager at Azendi's Reading branch said: "We had some lovely comments in our customer book with good wishes that I have taken home with me to treasure. Will miss our loyal customers and the product but most importantly all my fab Azendi friends! Shame we couldn't make it work!"

However one Facebook user described Azendi jewellery as going out of reach due to price rises. Heather McAvan wrote: "Shocked and sad to read this. In truth though, I think Azendi has priced itself out of the market. I used to buy all my gifts and jewellery from Azendi but a few years ago noticed a steep price rise which made it unaffordable for me."

The announcement that Azendi was going into administration was made by Adrian Berry and Daniel Butters earlier this month. The pair, partners at Deloitte, have been appointed joint administrators to Azendi Limited.

Ian Jones' statement on the closure of Azendi's stores:

Sadly, our stores in Manchester, Liverpool, Edinburgh, York, Meadowhall, Milton Keynes, Richmond, Chelsea, Bristol, Bath, Reading, Leicester and Birmingham were closed today.

Despite the best efforts of the dedicated store managers and head office, the combined effects of the recession, the internet and increasing occupation costs meant that we lost the battle to keep the stores open through the recession.

I know that many store managers made great sacrifices to keep the stores afloat during the difficult trading period and put their strongest efforts into maintaining the brilliant service that their stores were recognised for.

Store managers have expressed to me how moved they have been by the kind words of the customers who have been into the stores since the company entered administration. And I'd like to thank the many people who have expressed kind words on Twitter and by email.

I have secured the future of the original Headingley store where the brand was founded and both that store and the website will continue to trade under the Azendi name but in a new company structure.

In addition I am aware that there may be an opportunity to revive other stores and give a long term [future] to the brand and the staff in those stores.

The stores that remain open now are Headingley, Leeds, Harrogate, Westfield London, Cambridge and Aberdeen.

All customers with issues about purchases should contact customerservices@azendi.com where we will endeavour to rectify any faults, complaints or dissatisfactions.

As part of our ongoing relationship with House of Fraser, we are rolling out the brand to a further 10 house of Fraser jewellery departments bringing the total number of outlets to 40.

We are working closely with the House of Fraser jewellery department to broaden the range of Azendi jewellery stocked there.

Best wishes

Ian Jones
Founder Azendi

http://www.professionaljeweller.com/...ion-statement/