A BRANCH of the toy superstore Smyths is to open this month in the Poole’s former Toys R Us site.

Smyths Toys’ latest catalogue says the store on the Nuffield Industrial Estate will open on Thursday, October 24.

The Toys R Us superstore on the site closed in April 2018 after the retailer collapsed into administration.

Smyths Toys opened a store at Bournemouth’s Mallard Road Retail Park in 2015, creating around 30 jobs.

Smyths Toys, based in Galway in Ireland, has more than 110 branches across the UK and Ireland. Its range runs from dolls to video games and from action figures to baby products, as well as stocking bikes, DVDs and books.

It has not yet revealed any more about its Poole store but said it would be issuing more information once details were finalised.

A planning application to divide the site into three smaller units was submitted this year by FI-Real Estate Management and approved by BCP Council.

The management company had been appointed to find new tenants for 31 former Toys R Us stores.

The plan is for the former shop to be split between Smyths Toys, South Coast Building Supplies and JD Gyms.

Each unit will be around the same size and access at the front for customers and at the back for deliveries, the application said.

The once-thriving Toys R Us store had 340 parking spaces but this is due to be reduced to 226 spaces under the plans.

Planning agent Lambert Smith Hampton said in its application that the “prompt re-use of the vacated Toys R Us building will bring confidence to the local economic market through increased employment opportunities to parts of the local community”.

It added: “The re-use of the building will minimise the potential for anti-social behaviour on the empty property and car park and secure a safe and well-designed built environment that provides a long term solution to the site.”

BCP Council planning officer Chloe Oliver said when approving the plan that it “would also deliver benefits in terms of investment and provide employment opportunities within the borough that will contribute to the economy of the town”.

The development is expected to provide 70-100 jobs. Toys R Us employed 35 full-time members of staff before it became one of several high-profile retailers to fold in 2018.