After standing empty for 11 months, the former Iceland store in Beeston town centre is set to open as an Asian supermarket. Oriental Mart, which opened its first shop in Nottingham in 2008, has taken over the premises in High Road as part of its expansion plans into highly populated student areas.
Yan Liu, from Oriental Mart, said: “Beeston seemed like the ideal place for us to have a new store, with the tram being here, new independent businesses and a cinema opening up, as well as the ever-growing University of Nottingham with its international students. We’ve seen a shift in Nottingham becoming a more student city in the last 15 to 20 years."
Oriental Mart began as a family-run online business in 2006, delivering products across the whole of the UK. As the website grew bigger, there was a demand to open a shop in Heathcoat Street, Hockley, in 2008 - now closed and being turned into a Mexican restaurant. A second shop opened in Goldsmith Street in 2018.
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With more than 3,000 fresh, frozen and dried products from countries including China, Korea, Japan, Thailand, Malaysia, Philippines and Vietnam, it is now the biggest Oriental retailer in the Nottingham area.
Oriental Mart's diversity in produce from different countries has earnt rave reviews, with the website being recommended by The Hairy Bikers Asian Adventure Cookbook and a leading Korean cooking website.
The deal was landed by commercial property agency Innes England. Associate director Ross Whiting said: “We’re delighted to have secured this property on favourable terms for Oriental Mart, which has been a long-standing client and is renowned for providing high quality products to a growing market.
“We dealt with the whole process from start to finish – from being given a brief, sourcing a property, negotiating terms and dealing with the legal elements, to handing over the keys. Beeston has long been a popular area for students, which we know is a key target market for Oriental Mart, so the location and scale of the premises made sense for all parties."
The store, which will employ 10 people, is due to open at the end of March 2023, once the internal refurbishment is completed.
Yan added: “We hadn’t been actively searching but when the opportunity arose, we thought it would be the next step to expand our company. We’re really looking forward to getting up and running and providing Beeston and its surrounding areas with good-quality Southeast Asian food produce.”
The landlord was represented by FHP Property Consultants, whose director Oliver Marshall added: "It is a thriving town with a busy student population, making it a great location for the new occupants.”
The move follows other high street deals recently completed by Innes England, including the relocation of the popular food on-the-go retailer Greggs to larger premises in the centre of Beeston.
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