A business owner is to pump £1m into a new Liverpool convenience store after securing a premises licence.
Phil Dickson, of Empire Group, is to purchase a unit on Bridgewater Street in L1 to open a Co-op store that will serve alcohol from 6am daily. The licence was granted despite opposition from a neighbouring business which ran a petition that was claimed to be “vexatious” by Mr Dickson’s agent.
The applicant, who runs a number of stores across the North West and North East, will now invest £1m into the business and purchase the currently vacant lot on Bridgewater Street rather than a conventional lease. Liverpool Council ’s licensing and gambling sub-committee heard this morning from Gill Sherratt, of Licensing Matters, on behalf of Mr Dickson, that he had been in the licensing trade since 1998 and had set up his own company, Empire Group, in 2006.
