Barker & Stonehouse is closing its Newcastle city centre store ahead of the opening of a new Tyneside store.
The luxury home furnishings company is investing a significant sum into a new store at the Metrocentre Retail Park in Gateshead, which is set to open on Good Friday, April 7, this year, complete with new features for customers including a restaurant. The move means the company will be closing its shop in Newcastle’s Leazes Park Road, where it has traded since 1998. Staff were told of the closure plan last autumn, which managing director James Barker says have been triggered by a number of changes.
Mr Barker said there are no plans to open elsewhere in the city centre because of the firm’s sizeable investment at the Metrocentre, plus the success of its partnership with nearby department store Fenwick. The firm last year launched its partnership with fellow North East retail stalwart Fenwick, opening new in-store concepts within the company’s department stores in Newcastle and Kingston.
