New store at Woolies was ‘worth’ the wait (From Bournemouth Echo)

New store at Woolies was ‘worth’ the wait

7:00am Monday 6th July 2009

• Print
• Email
• Share
• Comments(11)

CROWDS gathered to be the first shoppers to have a taste of a new Poole shop that has breathed new life into a store left empty when Woolworths went bust.

The store in Ashley Road, Parkstone, reopened on Saturday as an 89p More For Less shop, run by local family the Annauths.

Poole Town Crier David Squire was on hand to declare the 4,000 square foot shop open.

Anoushka Annauth will run the business with her brother Kreeshan and sister Neeshe Dinya and the Parkstone family is promising quality branded goods, including a return for the famous Pick ’n’ Mix.

Anoushka said: “The response was excellent. There were queues outside, so as soon as the ribbon was cut there were lots of people coming in.

“We’re very pleased. We’ve done a lot of hard work and it’s coming through now, so everybody is very happy.

“We’ve had a lot of very good feedback. One lady said it was something they really needed on this road.”

A handful of former Woolies staff have returned and around 20 new jobs have been created.

Now it is trading, the shop hopes to repeat the spectacular success of Wellworths in Dorchester, which was opened by the former Woolworths store manager there and encouraged the Annauths to do something similar.

If it goes well in Parkstone, the family, who have lived in the area for more than 20 years, hope to expand around Poole and Bournemouth.

The Parkstone store follows a series of others to be filled after standing empty since Woolworths went out of business.

In Swanage, town business Nixon’s Home Hardware have moved into the vacant store, while in Wimborne fashion chain Fat Face took over the town’s branch. In Lymington, budget chain 99p Stores is set to move in to the former ‘Woolies’.

• Print
• Email
• Share
• Comments(11)